initial commit of ebook 2115HEADmain

2 files changed, 7898 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/15frd10.txt b/old/15frd10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c91606c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/15frd10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7898 @@
+Project Gutenberg Etext of Thomas Carlyle's "History of 
+Friedrich II of Prussia V" volume 15.
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
+the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!!
+
+Please take a look at the important information in this header.
+We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
+electronic path open for the next readers.  Do not remove this.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
+further information is included below.  We need your donations.
+
+History of Friedrich II of Prussia V
+
+Volume 15
+
+By Thomas Carlyle
+
+March, 2000  [Etext #2115]
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etext Carlyle's "History of Fredrich II of Prussia"
+volume 15
+******This file should be named 15frd10.txt or 15frd10.zip******
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, 15frd11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 15frd10a.txt
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,
+all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a
+copyright notice is included.  Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any
+of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+This etext was first created by D.R. Thompson, drthom@ihug.co.nz
+
+We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+
+Please note:  neither this list nor its contents are final till
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.  To be sure you have an
+up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes
+in the first week of the next month.  Since our ftp program has
+a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a
+look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a
+new copy has at least one byte more or less.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-six text
+files per month, or 432 more Etexts in 1999 for a total of 2000+
+If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the
+total should reach over 200 billion Etexts given away this year.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only ~5% of the present number of computer users.
+
+At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
+of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we
+manage to get some real funding; currently our funding is mostly
+from Michael Hart's salary at Carnegie-Mellon University, and an
+assortment of sporadic gifts; this salary is only good for a few
+more years, so we are looking for something to replace it, as we
+don't want Project Gutenberg to be so dependent on one person.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+
+All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are
+tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.  (CMU = Carnegie-
+Mellon University).
+
+For these and other matters, please mail to:
+
+Project Gutenberg
+P. O. Box  2782
+Champaign, IL 61825
+
+When all other email fails. . .try our Executive Director:
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org
+if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if
+it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . .
+
+We would prefer to send you this information by email.
+
+******
+
+To access Project Gutenberg etexts, use any Web browser
+to view http://promo.net/pg.  This site lists Etexts by
+author and by title, and includes information about how
+to get involved with Project Gutenberg.  You could also
+download our past Newsletters, or subscribe here.  This
+is one of our major sites, please email hart@pobox.com,
+for a more complete list of our various sites.
+
+To go directly to the etext collections, use FTP or any
+Web browser to visit a Project Gutenberg mirror (mirror
+sites are available on 7 continents; mirrors are listed
+at http://promo.net/pg).
+
+Example FTP session:
+
+ftp metalab.unc.edu
+login: anonymous
+password: your@login
+cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg
+cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00
+dir [to see files]
+get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
+GET GUTINDEX.??  [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99]
+GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]
+
+***
+
+**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor**
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
+you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-
+tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor
+Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at
+Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project").  Among other
+things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this
+etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,
+officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost
+and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or
+indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:
+[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,
+or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word pro-
+     cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the
+     net profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon
+     University" within the 60 days following each
+     date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare)
+     your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time,
+scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty
+free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution
+you can think of.  Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg
+Association / Carnegie-Mellon University".
+
+*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
+
+
+
+
+                              BOOK XV.
+
+               SECOND SILESIAN WAR, IMPORTANT EPISODE
+                    IN THE GENERAL EUROPEAN ONE.
+
+                    15th Aug. 1744-25th Dec. 1745.
+ 
+
+                             Chapter I.
+ 
+                PRELIMINARY: HOW THE MOMENT ARRIVED.
+
+Battle being once seen to be inevitable, it was Friedrich's plan
+not to wait for it, but to give it. Thanks to Friedrich Wilhelm and
+himself, there is no Army, nor ever was any, in such continual
+preparation. Military people say, "Some Countries take six months,
+some twelve, to get in motion for war: but in three weeks Prussia
+can be across the marches, and upon the throat of its enemy."
+Which is an immense advantage to little Prussia among its big
+neighbors. "Some Countries have a longer sword than Prussia;
+but none can unsheathe it so soon:"--we hope, too, it is moderately
+sharp, when wielded by a deft hand.
+
+The French, as was intimated, are in great vigor, this Year;
+thoroughly provoked; and especially since Friedrich sent his
+Rothenburg among them, have been doing their very utmost.
+Their main effort is in the Netherlands, at present;--and indeed,
+as happened, continues all through this War to be. They by no means
+intend, or ever did, to neglect Teutschland; yet it turns out, they
+have pretty much done with their fighting there. And next Year,
+driven or led by accidents of various kinds, they quit it
+altogether; and turning their whole strength upon the Netherlands
+and Italy, chiefly on the Netherlands, leave Friedrich, much to his
+astonishment, with the German War hanging wholly round HIS neck,
+and take no charge of it farther! In which, to Friedrich's
+Biographers, there is this inestimable benefit, if far the reverse
+to Friedrich's self: That we shall soon have done with the French,
+then; with them and with so much else; and may, in time coming, for
+most part, leave their huge Sorcerer's Sabbath of a European War to
+dance itself out, well in the distance, not encumbering us farther,
+like a circumambient Bedlam, as it has hitherto done.
+Courage, reader! Let us give, in a glance or two, some notion of
+the course things took, and what moment it was when Friedrich
+struck in;--whom alone, or almost alone, we hope to follow
+thenceforth; "Dismal Swamp" (so gracious was Heaven to us) lying
+now mostly to rearward, little as we hoped it!
+
+It was mere accident, a series of bad accidents, that led King
+Louis and his Ministers into gradually forsaking Friedrich.
+They were the farthest in the world from intending such a thing.
+Contrariwise, what brain-beating, diplomatic spider-weaving,
+practical contriving, now and afterwards, for that object;
+especially now! Rothenburg, Noailles, Belleisle, Cardinal Tencin,
+have been busy; not less the mistress Chateauroux, who admires
+Friedrich, being indeed a high-minded unfortunate female, as they
+say; and has thrown out Amelot, not for stammering alone. They are
+able, almost high people, this new Chateauroux Ministry, compared
+with some; and already show results.
+
+Nay, what is most important of all, France has (unconsciously, or
+by mere help of Noailles and luck) got a real General to her
+Armies: Comte de Saxe, now Marechal de Saxe; who will shine very
+splendent in these Netherland operations,--counter-shone by mere
+Wades, D'Ahrembergs, Cumberlands,--in this and the Four following
+Years. Noailles had always recognized Comte de Saxe; had long
+striven for him, in Official quarters; and here gets the light of
+him unveiled at last, and set on a high place: loyal Noailles.
+
+This was the Year, this 1744, when Louis XV., urged by his
+Chateauroux, the high-souled unfortunate female, appeared in person
+at the head of his troops: "Go, Sire, go, MON CHOU (and I will
+accompany); show yourself where a King should be, at the head of
+your troops; be a second Louis-le-Grand!" Which he did, his
+Chateauroux and he; actually went to the Netherlands, with baggage-
+train immeasurable, including not cooks only, but play-actors with
+their thunder-barrels (off from Paris, May 3d), to the admiration
+of the Universe. [Adelung, iv. 113; Barbier, ii. 391, 394; Dulaure,
+<italic> Hist. de Paris; <end italic> &c.] Took the command,
+nominal-command, first days of June; and captured in no-time Menin,
+Ipres, Furnes, and the Fort of Knock, and as much of the Austrian
+Netherlands as he liked,--that is to say, saw Noailles and Saxe do
+it;--walking rapidly forward from Siege to Siege, with a most
+thundering artillery; old Marshal Wade and consorts dismally eating
+their victuals, and looking on from the distance, unable to attempt
+the least stroke in opposition. So that the Dutch Barrier, if
+anybody now cared for it, did go all flat; and the Balance of Power
+gets kicked out of its sacred pivot: to such purpose have the Dutch
+been hoisted! Terrible to think of;--had not there, from the
+opposite quarter, risen a surprising counterpoise; had not there
+been a Prince Karl, with his 70,000, pressing victoriously over the
+Rhine; which stayed the French in these sacrilegious procedures.
+
+
+     PRINCE KARL GETS ACROSS THE RHINE (20 JUNE-2 JULY, 1744).
+
+Prince Karl, some weeks ago, at Heilbronn, joined his Rhine Army,
+which had gathered thither from the Austrian side, through Baiern,
+and from the Hither-Austrian or Swabian Winter-quarters; with full
+intent to be across the Rhine, and home upon Elsass and the
+Compensation Countries, this Summer, under what difficulties
+soever. Karl, or, as some whisper, old Marshal Traun, who is
+nominally second in command, do make a glorious campaign of it,
+this Year;--and lift the Cause of Liberty, at one time, to the
+highest pitch it ever reached. Here, in brief terms, is Prince
+Karl's Operation on the Rhine, much admired by military men:--
+
+"STOCKSTADT, JUNE 20th, 1744. Some thirty and odd miles north of
+Mannheim, the Rhine, before turning westward at Mainz, makes one
+other of its many Islands (of which there are hundreds since the
+leap at Schaffhausen): one other, and I think the biggest of them
+all; perhaps two miles by five; which the Germans call KUHKOPF
+(Cowhead), from the shape it has,--a narrow semi-ellipse;
+River there splitting in two, one split (the western) going
+straight, the other bending luxuriantly round: so that the HIND-
+head or straight end of the Island lies towards France, and the
+round end, or cow-LIPS (so to speak) towards native Teutschland,
+and the woody Hills of the Berg-Strasse thereabouts. Stockstadt,
+chief little Town looking over into this Cowhead Island, lies under
+the CHIN: understand only farther that the German branch carries
+more than two-thirds of the River; that on the Island itself there
+is no town, or post of defence; and that Stockstadt is the place
+for getting over. Coigny and the French, some 40,000, are guarding
+the River hereabouts, with lines, with batteries, cordons, the best
+they can; Seckendorf, with 20,000 more ('Imperial' Old Bavarian
+Troops, revivified, recruited by French pay), is in his garrison of
+Philipsburg, ready to help when needed:"--not moulting now, at
+Wembdingen, in that dismal manner; new-feathered now into "Kaiser's
+Army;" waiting in his Philipsburg to guard the River there.
+"Coigny's French have ramparts, ditches, not quite unfurnished, on
+their own shore, opposite this Cowhead Island (ISLE DE HERON, as
+they call it); looking over to the hind-head, namely: but they have
+nothing considerable there; and in the Island itself, nothing
+whatever. 'If now Stockstadt were suddenly snatched by us,' thinks
+Karl;--'if a few pontoons were nimbly swung in?'
+
+"JUNE 20th,--Coigny's people all shooting FEU-DE-JOIE, for that
+never enough to be celebrated Capture of Menin and the Dutch
+Barrier a fortnight ago,--this is managed to be done. The active
+General Barenklau, active Brigadier Daun under him, pushes rapidly
+across into Kuhkopf; rapidly throws up intrenchments, ramparts,
+mounts cannon, digs himself in,--greatly to Coigny's astonishment;
+whose people hereabouts, and in all their lines and posts, are busy
+shooting FEU-DE-JOIE for those immortal Dutch victories, at the
+moment, and never dreaming of such a thing. Fresh force floods in,
+Prince Karl himself arrives next day, in support of Barenklau;
+Coigny (head-quarters at Speyer, forty miles south) need not
+attempt dislodging him; but must stand upon his guard, and prepare
+for worse. Which he does with diligence; shifting northward into
+those Stockstadt-Mainz parts; calling Seckendorf across the River,
+and otherwise doing his best,--for about ten days more, when worse,
+and almost worst, did verily befall him.
+
+"No attempt was made on Barenklau; nor, beyond the alarming of the
+Coigny-Seckendorf people, did anything occur in Cowhead Island,--
+unless it were the finis of an ugly bully and ruffian, who has more
+than once afflicted us: which may be worth one word.
+Colonel Mentzel [copper-faced Colonel, originally Play-actor,
+"Spy in Persia," and I know not what] had been at the seizure of
+Kuhkopf; a prominent man. Whom, on the fifth day after ('June
+25th'), Prince Karl overwhelmed with joy, by handing him a Patent
+of Generalcy: 'Just received from Court, my Friend, on account of
+your merits old and late.'--'Aha,' said Barenklau, congratulating
+warmly: 'Dine with me, then, Herr General Mentzel, this very day.
+The Prince himself is to be there, Highness of Hessen-Darmstadt,
+and who not; all are impatient to drink your health!' Mentzel had a
+glorious dinner; still more glorious drink,--Prince Karl and the
+others, it is said, egging him into much wild bluster and
+gasconade, to season their much wine. Eminent swill of drinking,
+with the loud coarse talk supposable, on the part of Mentzel and
+consorts did go on, in this manner, all afternoon: in the evening,
+drunk Mentzel came out for air; went strutting and staggering
+about; emerging finally on the platform of some rampart, face of
+him huge and red as that of the foggiest rising Moon;--and stood,
+looking over into the Lorraine Country; belching out a storm of
+oaths, as to his taking it, as to his doing this and that; and was
+even flourishing his sword by way of accompaniment; when, lo,
+whistling slightly through the summer air, a rifle-ball from some
+sentry on the French side (writers say, it was a French drummer,
+grown impatient, and snatching a sentry's piece) took the brain of
+him, or the belly of him; and he rushed down at once, a totally
+collapsed monster, and mere heap of dead ruin, never to trouble
+mankind more." [<italic> Guerre de Boheme, <end italic> iii. 165.]
+For which my readers and I are rather thankful. Voltaire, and
+perhaps other memorable persons, sometimes mention this brute
+(miraculous to the Plebs and Gazetteers); otherwise eternal
+oblivion were the best we could do with him. Trenck also, readers
+will be glad to understand, ends in jail and bedlam by and by.
+
+"Prince Karl had not the least intention of crossing by this
+Cowhead Island. Nevertheless he set about two other Bridges in the
+neighborhood, nearer Mainz (few miles below that City);
+kept manoeuvring his Force, in huge half-moon, round that quarter,
+and mysteriously up and down; alarming Coigny wholly into the Mainz
+region. For the space of ten days; and then, stealing off to
+Schrock, a little Rhine Village above Philipsburg, many miles away
+from Coigny and his vigilantes, he--
+
+"NIGHT OF 30th JUNE-1st JULY, Suddenly shot Pandour Trenck,
+followed by Nadasti and 6,000, across at Schrock who scattered
+Seckendorf's poor outposts thereabouts to the winds; 'built a
+bridge before morning, and next day another.' Next day Prince Karl
+in person appeared; and on the 3d of July, had his whole Army with
+its luggages across; and had seized the Lines of Lauterburg and
+Weissenburg (celebrated northern defence of Elsass),--much to
+Coigny's amazement; and remained inexpugnable there, with Elsass
+open to him, and to Coigny shut, for the present! [Adelung, iv.
+139-141.] Coigny made bitter wail, accusation, blame of Seckendorf,
+blame of men and of things; even tried some fighting, Seckendorf
+too doing feats, to recover those Lines of Weissenburg: but could
+not do it. And, in fact, blazing to and fro in that excited rather
+than luminous condition, could not do anything; except retire into
+the strong posts of the background; and send express on express,
+swifter than the wind if you can, to a victorious King overturning
+the Dutch Barrier: 'Help, your Majesty, or we are lost; and France
+is--what shall I say!'"
+
+"Admirable feat of Strategy! What a General, this Prince Karl!"
+exclaimed mankind,--Cause-of-Liberty mankind with special
+enthusiasm; and took to writing LIVES of Prince Karl, [For
+instance, <italic> The Life of his Highness Prince Charles of &c.,
+with &c. &c. <end italic> (London, 1746); one of the most
+distracted Blotches ever published under the name of Book;--
+wakening thoughts of a public dimness very considerable indeed, to
+which this could offer itself as lamp!] as well as tar-burning and
+TE-DEUM-ing on an extensive scale. For it had sent the Cause of
+Liberty bounding up again to the top of things, this of crossing
+the Rhine, in such fashion. And, in effect, the Cause of Liberty,
+and Prince Karl himself, had risen hereby to their acme or
+culminating point in World-History; not to continue long at such
+height, little as they dreamt of that, among their tar-burnings.
+The feat itself--contrived by Nadasti, people say, and executed
+(what was the real difficulty) by Traun--brought Prince Karl very
+great renown, this Year; and is praised by Friedrich himself, now
+and afterwards, as masterly, as Julius Caesar's method, and the
+proper way of crossing rivers (when executable) in face of an
+enemy. And indeed Prince Karl, owing to Traun or not, is highly
+respectable in the way of Generalship at present; and did in these
+Five Months, from June onward, really considerable things. At his
+very acme of Life, as well as of Generalship; which, alas, soon
+changed, poor man; never to culminate again. He had got, at the
+beginning of the Year, the high Maria Theresa's one Sister,
+Archduchess Maria Anna, to Wife; [Age then twenty-five gone:
+"born 14th September, 1718; married to Prince Karl 7th January,
+1744; died, of childbirth, 16th December same year" (Hormayr,
+<italic> OEsterreichischer Plutarch, <end italic> iv. erstes
+Baudchen, 54).] the crown of long mutual attachment; she safe now
+at Brussels, diligent Co-Regent, and in a promising family-way; he
+here walking on victorious:--need any man be happier? No man can be
+supremely happy long; and this General's strategic felicity and his
+domestic were fatally cut down almost together. The Cause of
+Liberty, too, now at the top of its orbit, was--But let us stick by our Excerpting:
+
+"DUNKIRK, 19th JULY, 1744 [Princess Ulrique's Wedding, just two
+days ago]. King Louis, on hearing of the Job's-news from Elsass,
+instantly suspended his Conquests in Flanders; detached Noailles,
+detached this one and that, double-quick, Division after Division
+(leaving Saxe, with 45,000, to his own resources, and the fatuities
+of Marshal Wade); and, 19th July, himself hastens off from Dunkirk
+(leaving much of the luggage, but not the Chateauroux behind him),
+to save his Country, poor soul. But could not, in the least, save
+it; the reverse rather. August 4th, he got to Metz, Belleisle's
+strong town, about 100 miles from the actual scene; his detached
+reinforcements, say 50,000 men or so, hanging out ahead like flame-
+clouds, but uncertain how to act;--Noailles being always
+cunctatious in time of crisis, and poor Louis himself nothing of a
+Cloud-Compeller;--and then,
+
+"METZ, AUGUST 8th, The Most Christian King fell ill; dangerously,
+dreadfully, just like to die. Which entirely paralyzed Noailles and
+Company, or reduced them to mere hysterics, and excitement of the
+unluminous kind. And filled France in general, Paris in particular,
+with terror, lamentation, prayers of forty hours; and such a
+paroxysm of hero-worship as was never seen for such an object
+before." [Espagnac, ii. 12; Adelung, iv. 180; <italic> Fastes de
+Louis XV., <end italic> ii. 423; &c. &c.]
+
+For the Cause of Liberty here, we consider, was the culminating
+moment; Elsass, Lorraine and the Three Bishoprics lying in their
+quasi-moribund condition; Austrian claims of Compensation ceasing
+to be visions of the heated brain, and gaining some footing on the
+Earth as facts. Prince Karl is here actually in Elsass, master of
+the strong passes; elate in heart, he and his; France, again, as if
+fallen paralytic, into temporary distraction; offering for
+resistance nothing hitherto but that universal wailing of mankind,
+Hero-worship of a thrice-lamentable nature, and the Prayers of
+Forty-Hours! Most Christian Majesty, now IN EXTREMIS, centre of the
+basest hubbub that ever was, is dismissing Chateauroux.
+Noailles, Coigny and Company hang well back upon the Hill regions,
+and strong posts which are not yet menaced; or fly vaguely, more or
+less distractedly, hither and thither; not in the least like
+fighting Karl, much less like beating him. Karl has Germany free at
+his back (nay it is a German population round him here); neither
+haversack nor cartridge-box like to fail: before him are only a
+Noailles and consorts, flying vaguely about;--and there is in Karl,
+or under the same cloak with him at present, a talent of
+manoeuvring men, which even Friedrich finds masterly. If old
+Marshal Wade, at the other end of the line, should chance to awaken
+and press home on Saxe, and his remnant of French, with right
+vigor? In fact, there was not, that I can see, for centuries past,
+not even at the Siege of Lille in Marlborough's time, a more
+imminent peril for France.
+
+
+                 FRIEDRICH DECIDES TO INTERVENE.
+
+King Friedrich, on hearing of these Rhenish emergencies and of King
+Louis's heroic advance to the rescue, perceived that for himself
+too the moment was come; and hastened to inform heroic Louis, That
+though the terms of their Bargain were not yet completed, Sweden,
+Russia and other points being still in a pendent condition, he,
+Friedrich,--with an eye to success of their Joint Adventure, and to
+the indispensability of joint action, energy, and the top of one's
+speed now or never,--would, by the middle of this same August, be
+on the field with 100,000 men. "An invasion of Bohemia, will not
+that astonish Prince Karl; and bring him to his Rhine-Bridges
+again? Over which, if your Most Christian Majesty be active, he
+will not get, except in a half, or wholly ruined state. Follow him
+close; send the rest of your force to threaten Hanover; sit well on
+the skirts of Prince Karl. Him as he hurries homeward, ruined or
+half-ruined, him, or whatever Austrian will fight, I do my best to
+beat. We may have Bohemia, and a beaten Austria, this very Autumn:
+see,--and, in one Campaign, there is Peace ready for us!" This is
+Friedrich's scheme of action; success certain, thinks he, if only
+there be energy, activity, on your side, as there shall be on mine;
+--and has sent Count Schmettau, filled with fiery speed and
+determination, to keep the French full of the like, and concert
+mutual operations.
+
+"Magnanimous!" exclaim Noailles and the paralyzed French Gentlemen
+(King Louis, I think, now past speech, for Schmettau only came
+August 9th): "Most sublime behavior, on his Prussian Majesty's
+part!" own they. And truly it is a fine manful indifference (by no
+means so common as it should be) to all interests, to all
+considerations, but that of a Joint Enterprise one has engaged in.
+And truly, furthermore, it was immediate salvation to the paralyzed
+French Gentlemen, in that alarming crisis; though they did not much
+recognize it afterwards as such: and indeed were conspicuously
+forgetful of all parts of it, when their own danger was over.
+
+Maria Theresa's feelings may be conceived; George II's feelings;
+and what the Cause of Liberty in general felt, and furiously said
+and complained, when--suddenly as a DEUS EX MACHINA, or Supernal
+Genie in the Minor Theatres--Friedrich stept in. Precisely in this
+supreme crisis, 7th August, 1744, Friedrich's Minister, Graf von
+Dohna, at Vienna, has given notice of the Frankfurt Union, and
+solemn Engagement entered into: "Obliged in honor and conscience;
+will and must now step forth to right an injured Kaiser;
+cannot stand these high procedures against an Imperial Majesty
+chosen by all the Princes of the Reich, this unheard-of protest
+that the Kaiser is no Kaiser, as if all Germany were but Austria
+and the Queen of Hungary's. Prussian Majesty has not the least
+quarrel of his own with the Queen of Hungary, stands true, and will
+stand, by the Treaty of Berlin and Breslau;--only, with certain
+other German Princes, has done what all German Princes and peoples
+not Austrian are bound to do, on behalf of their down-trodden
+Kaiser, formed a Union of Frankfurt; and will, with armed hand if
+indispensable, endeavor to see right done in that matter."
+[In <italic> Adelung, <end italic> iv. 155, 156, the Declaration
+itself (Audience, "7th August, 1744." Dohna off homeward "on the
+second day after").]
+
+This is the astonishing fact for the Cause of Liberty; and no
+clamor and execration will avail anything. This man is prompt, too;
+does not linger in getting out his Sword, when he has talked of it.
+Prince Karl's Operation is likely to be marred amazingly. If this
+swift King (comparable to the old Serpent for devices) were to
+burst forth from his Silesian strengths; tread sharply on the TAIL
+of Prince Karl's Operation, and bring back the formidably fanged
+head of IT out of Alsace, five hundred miles all at once,--there
+would be a business!
+
+We will now quit the Rhine Operations, which indeed are not now of
+moment; Friedrich being suddenly the key of events again. I add
+only, what readers are vaguely aware of, that King Louis did not
+die; that he lay at death's door for precisely one week (8th-15th
+August), symptoms mending on the 15th. In the interim,--Grand-
+Almoner Fitz-James (Uncle of our Conte di Spinelli) insisting that
+a certain Cardinal, who had got the Sacraments in hand, should
+insist; and endless ministerial intrigue being busy,--moribund
+Louis had, when it came to the Sacramental point, been obliged to
+dismiss his Chateauroux. Poor Chateauroux; an unfortunate female;
+yet, one almost thinks, the best man among them: dismissed at Metz
+here, and like to be mobbed! That was the one issue of King Louis's
+death-sickness. Sublime sickness; during which all Paris wept
+aloud, in terror and sorrow, like a child that has lost its mother
+and sees a mastiff coming; wept sublimely, and did the Prayers of
+Forty-Hours; and called King Louis Le BIEN-AIME (The Well-
+beloved):--merely some obstruction in the royal bowels, it turned
+out;--a good cathartic, and the Prayers of Forty-Hours, quite
+reinstated matters. Nay reinstated even Chateauroux, some time
+after,--"the Devil being well again," and, as the Proverb says,
+quitting his monastic view. Reinstated Chateauroux: but this time,
+poor creature, she continued only about a day:--"Sudden fever,
+from excitement," said the Doctors: "Fever? Poison, you mean!"
+whispered others, and looked for changes in the Ministry.
+Enough, oh, enough!--
+
+Old Marshal Wade did not awaken, though bawled to by his Ligoniers
+and others, and much shaken about, poor old gentleman.
+"No artillery to speak of," murmured he; "want baggage-wagons,
+too!" and lay still. "Here is artillery!" answered the Official
+people; "With my own money I will buy you baggage-wagons!" answered
+the high Maria Anna, in her own name and her Prince Karl's, who are
+Joint-Governors there. Possibly he would have awakened, had they
+given him time. But time, in War especially, is the thing that is
+never given. Once Friedrich HAD struck in, the moment was gone by.
+Poor old Wade! Of him also enough.
+
+
+
+                           Chapter II.
+
+            FRIEDRICH MARCHES UPON PRAG, CAPTURES PRAG.
+
+It was on Saturday, "early in the morning," 15th August, 1744, that
+Friedrich set out, attended by his two eldest Brothers, Prince of
+Prussia and Prince Henri, from Potsdam, towards this new Adventure,
+which proved so famous since. Sudden, swift, to the world's
+astonishment;--actually on march here, in three Columns (two
+through Saxony by various routes southeastward, one from Silesia
+through Glatz southwestward), to invade Bohemia: rumor says 100,000
+strong, fact itself says upwards of 80,000, on their various
+routes, converging towards Prag. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> ii. 1165. Orlich (ii. 25, 27) enumerates the various
+regiments.] His Columns, especially his Saxon Columns, are already
+on the road; he joins one Column, this night, at Wittenberg; and is
+bent, through Saxony, towards the frontiers of Bohemia, at the
+utmost military speed he has.
+
+Through Saxony about 60,000 go: he has got the Kaiser's Order to
+the Government of Saxony, "Our august Ally, requiring on our
+Imperial business a transit through you;"--and Winterfeld, an
+excellent soldier and negotiator, has gone forward to present said
+Order. A Document which flurries the Dresden Officials beyond
+measure. Their King is in Warsaw; their King, if here, could do
+little; and indeed has been inclining to Maria Theresa this long
+while. And Winterfeld insists on such despatch;--and not even the
+Duke of Weissenfels is in Town, Dresden Officials "send off five
+couriers and thirteen estafettes" to the poor old Duke;
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> ii. 1163.] get him at
+last; and-- The march is already taking effect; they may as well
+consent to it: what can they do but consent! In the uttermost
+flurry, they had set to fortifying Dresden; all hands driving
+palisades, picking, delving, making COUPURES (trenches, or sunk
+barricades) in the streets;--fatally aware that it can avail
+nothing. Is not this the Kaiser's Order? Prussians, to the amount
+of 60,000, are across our Frontiers, rapidly speeding on.
+
+"Friedrich's Manifesto--under the modest Title, 'ANZEIGE DER
+URSACHEN (Advertisement of the Causes which have induced his
+Prussian Majesty to send the Romish Kaiser's Majesty some Auxiliary
+Troops)'--had appeared in the Berlin Newspapers Thursday, 13th,
+only two days before. An astonishment to all mankind; which gave
+rise to endless misconceptions of Friedrich: but which, supporting
+itself on proofs, on punctually excerpted foot-notes, is
+intrinsically a modest, quiet Piece; and, what is singular in
+Manifestoes, has nothing, or almost nothing, in it that is not, so
+far as it goes, a perfect statement of the fact. 'Auxiliary troops,
+that is our essential character. No war with her Hungarian Majesty,
+or with any other, on our own score. But her Hungarian Majesty, how
+has she treated the Romish Kaiser, her and our and the Reich's
+Sovereign Head, and to what pass reduced him; refusing him Peace on
+any terms, except those of self-annihilation; denying that he is a
+Kaiser at all;'--and enumerates the various Imperial injuries, with
+proof given, quiet footnotes by way of proof; and concludes in
+these words: 'For himself his Majesty requires nothing.
+The question here is not of his Majesty's own interest at all
+[everything his Majesty required, or requires, is by the Treaty of
+Berlin solemnly his, if the Reich and its Laws endure]: and he has
+taken up arms simply and solely in the view of restoring to the
+Reich its freedom, to the Kaiser his Headship of the Reich, and to
+all Europe the Peace which is so desirable.' [Given in Seyfarth,
+<italic> Beylage, <end italic> i. 121-136, with date
+"August, 1744."]
+
+"'Pretences, subterfuges, lies!' exclaimed the Austrian and Allied
+Public everywhere, or strove to exclaim; especially the English
+Public, which had no difficulty in so doing;--a Public comfortably
+blank as to German facts or non-facts; and finding with amazement
+only this a very certain fact, That hereby is their own Pragmatic
+thunder checked in mid-volley in a most surprising manner, and the
+triumphant Cause of Liberty brought to jeopardy again.
+'Perfidious, ambitious, capricious!' exclaimed they: 'a Prince
+without honor, without truth, without constancy;'--and completed,
+for themselves, in hot rabid humor, that English Theory of
+Friedrich which has prevailed ever since. Perhaps the most
+surprising item of which is this latter, very prominent in those
+old times, That Friedrich has no 'constancy,' but follows his
+'caprices,' and accidental whirls of impulse:--item which has
+dropped away in our times, though the others stand as stable as
+ever. A monument of several things! Friedrich's suddenness is an
+essential part of what fighting talent he has: if the Public,
+thrown into flurry, cannot judge it well, they must even misjudge
+it: what help is there?
+
+"That the above were actually Friedrich's reasons for venturing
+into this Big Game again, is not now disputable. And as to the
+rumor, which rose afterwards (and was denied, and could only be
+denied diplomatically to the ear, if even to the ear), That
+Friedrich by Secret Article was 'to have for himself the Three
+Bohemian Circles, Konigsgratz, Bunzlau, Leitmeritz, which lie
+between Schlesien and Sachsen,' [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> i. 1081; Scholl, ii. 349.]--there is not a doubt but
+Friedrich had so bargained, 'Very well, if we can get said
+Circles!' and would right cheerfully have kept and held them, had
+the big game gone in all points completely well (game, to reinstate
+the Kaiser BOTH in Bohemia and Bavaria) by Friedrich's fine
+playing. Not a doubt of all this:--nor of what an extremely
+hypothetic outlook it then and always was; greatly too weak for
+enticing such a man."
+
+Friedrich goes in Three Columns. One, on the south or left shore of
+the Elbe, coming in various branches under Friedrich himself;
+this alone will touch on Dresden, pass on the south side of
+Dresden; gather itself about Pirna (in the Saxon Switzerland so
+called, a notable locality); thence over the Metal Mountains into
+Bohmen, by Toplitz, by Lowositz, Leitmeritz, and the Highway called
+the Pascopol, famous in War. The Second Column, under Leopold the
+Young Dessauer, goes on the other or north side of the Elbe, at a
+fair distance; marching through the Lausitz (rendezvous or
+starting-point was Bautzen in the Lausitz) straight south, to meet
+the King at Leitmeritz, where the grand Magazine is to be;
+and thence, still south, straight upon Prag, in conjunction with
+his Majesty or parallel to him. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> i. 1081.] These are the Two Saxon Columns. The Third
+Column, under Schwerin, collects itself in the interior of Silesia;
+is issuing, by Glatz Country, through the Giant Mountains,
+BOHMISCHE KAMME (Bohemian COMBS as they are called, which Tourists
+know), by the Pass of Braunau,--disturbing the dreams of Rubezahl,
+if Rubezahl happen to be there. This, say 20,000, will come down
+upon Prag from the eastern side; and be first on the ground (31st
+August),--first by one day. In the home parts of Silesia, well
+eastward of Glatz, there is left another Force of 20,000, which can
+go across the Austrian Border there, and hang upon the Hills,
+threatening Olmutz and the Moravian Countries, should need be.
+
+And so, in its Three Columns, from west, from north, from east, the
+march, with a steady swiftness, proceeds. Important especially
+those Two Saxon Columns from west and north: 60,000 of them, "with
+a frightful (ENTSETZLICH) quantity of big guns coming up the Elbe."
+Much is coming up the Elbe; indispensable Highway for this
+Enterprise. Three months' provisions, endless artillery and
+provender, is on the Elbe; 480 big boats, with immense VORSPANN (of
+trace-horses, dreadful swearing, too, as I have heard), will pass
+through the middle of Dresden: not landing by any means. "No, be
+assured of it, ye Dresdeners, all flurried, palisaded, barricaded;
+no hair of you shall be harmed." After a day or two, the flurry of
+Saxony subsided; Prussians, under strict discipline, molest no
+private person; pay their way; keep well aloof, to south and to
+north, of Dresden (all but the necessary ammunition-escorts do);--
+and require of the Official people nothing but what the Law of the
+Reich authorizes to "Imperial Auxiliaries" in such case.
+"The Saxons themselves," Friedrich observes, "had some 40,000, but
+scattered about; King in Warsaw:--dreadful terror; making COUPURES
+and TETES-DE-PONT;--could have made no defence." Had we diligently
+spent eight days on them! reflects he afterwards. "To seize Saxony
+[and hobble it with ropes, so that at any time you could pin it
+motionless, and even, if need were, milk the substance out of it],
+would not have detained us eight days." [<italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> iii. 53.] Which would have been the true
+plan, had we known what was getting ready there! Certain it is,
+Friedrich did no mischief, paid for everything; anxious to keep
+well with Saxony; hoping always they might join him again, in such
+a Cause. "Cause dear to every Patriot German Prince," urges
+Friedrich,--though Bruhl, and the Polish, once "Moravian," Majesty
+are of a very different opinion:--
+
+"Maria Theresa, her thoughts at hearing of it may be imagined:
+'The Evil Genius of my House afoot again! My high projects on
+Elsass and Lorraine; Husband for Kaiser, Elsass for the Reich and
+him, Lorraine for myself and him; gone probably to water!'
+Nevertheless she said (an Official person heard her say), 'My right
+is known to God; God will protect me, as He has already done.'
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> ii. 1024.] And rose very
+strong, and magnanimously defiant again; perhaps, at the bottom of
+her heart, almost glad withal that she would now have a stroke for
+her dear Silesia again, unhindered by Paladin George and his
+Treaties and notions. What measures, against this nefarious
+Prussian outbreak, hateful to gods and men, are possible, she
+rapidly takes: in Bohemia, in Bavaria and her other Countries, that
+are threatened or can help. And abates nothing of heart or hope;--
+praying withal, immensely, she and her People, according to the
+mode they have. Sending for Prince Karl, we need not say, double-
+quick, as the very first thing.
+
+"Of Maria Theresa in Hungary,--for she ran to Presburg again with
+her woes (August 16th, Diet just assembling there),--let us say
+only that Hungary was again chivalrous; that old Palfy and the
+general Hungarian Nation answered in the old tone,--VIVAT MARIA;
+AD ARMA, AD ARMA! with Tolpatches, Pandours, Warasdins;--and, in
+short, that great and small, in infinite 'Insurrection,' have still
+a stroke of battle in them PRO REGE NOSTRO. Scarcely above a
+District or two (as the JASZERS and KAUERS, in their over-cautious
+way) making the least difficulty. Much enthusiasm and unanimity in
+all the others; here and there a Hungarian gentleman complaining
+scornfully that their troops, known as among the best fighters in
+Nature, are called irregular troops,--irregular, forsooth! In one
+public consultation [District not important, not very spellable,

+though doubtless pronounceable by natives to it], a gentleman
+suggests that 'Winter is near; should not there be some slight
+provision of tents, of shelter in the frozen sleety Mountains, to
+our gallant fellows bound thither?' Upon which another starts up,
+'When our Ancestors came out of Asia Minor, over the Palus Maeotis
+bound in winter ice; and, sabre in hand, cut their way into this
+fine Country which is still ours, what shelter had they? No talk of
+tents, of barracks or accommodation there; each, wrapt in his sheep
+skin, found it shelter sufficient. Tents!' [<italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> ii. 1030.] And the thing was carried
+by acclamation.
+
+"Wide wail in Bohemia that War is coming back. Nobility all making
+off, some to Vienna or the intermediate Towns lying thitherward,
+some to their Country-seats; all out of Prag. Willing mind on the
+part of the Common People; which the Government strains every nerve
+to make the most of. Here are fasts, processions, Prayers of Forty-
+Hours; here, as in Vienna and elsewhere. In Vienna was a Three
+Days' solemn Fast: the like in Prag, or better; with procession to
+the shrine of St. Vitus,--little likely to help, I should fear.
+'Rise, all fencible men,' exclaims the Government,--'at least we
+will ballot, and make you rise:'--Militia people enter Prag to the
+extent of 10,000; like to avail little, one would fear. General
+Harsch, with reinforcement of real soldiers, is despatched from
+Vienna; Harsch, one of our ablest soldiers since Khevenhuller died,
+gets in still in time; and thus increases the Garrison of regulars
+to 4,000, with a vigorous Captain to guide it. Old Count Ogilvy,
+the same whom Saxe surprised two years ago in the moonlight,
+snatching ladders from the gallows,--Ogilvy is again Commandant;
+but this time nominal mainly, and with better outlooks, Harsch
+being under him. In relays, 3,000 of the Militia men dig and shovel
+night and day; repairing, perfecting the ramparts of the place.
+Then, as to provisions, endless corn is introduced,--farmers
+forced, the unwilling at the bayonet's point, to deliver in their
+corn; much of it in sheaf, so that we have to thrash it in the
+market-place, in the streets that are wide: and thus in Prag is
+heard the sound of flails, among the Militia-drums and so many
+other noises. With the great church-organs growling; and the bass
+and treble MISERERE of the poor superstitious People rising, to
+St. Vitus and others. In fact, it is a general Dance of St. Vitus,
+--except that of the flails, and Militia-men working at the
+ramparts,--mostly not leading any-whither." ["LETTER from a Citizen
+of Prag," date, 21st Sept. (in <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> ii. 1168), which gives several curious details.]
+
+Meanwhile Friedrich's march from west, from north, from east, is
+flowing on; diligent, swift; punctual to its times, its places; and
+meets no impediment to speak of. At Tetschen on the Saxon-Bohemian
+Frontier,--a pleasant Schloss perched on its crags, as Tourists
+know, where the Elbe sweeps into Saxon Switzerland and its long
+stone labyrinths,--at Tetschen the Austrians had taken post;
+had tried to block the River, driving piles into it, and tumbling
+boulders into it, with a view to stop the 480 Prussian Boats.
+These people needed to be torn out, their piles and they: which was
+done in two days, the soldier part of it; and occupied the boatmen
+above a week, before all was clear again. Prosperous, correct to
+program, all the rest; not needing mention from us;--here are the
+few sparks from it that dwell in one's memory:--
+
+"AUGUST 15th, 1744, King left Potsdam; joined his First Column that
+night, at Wittenberg. Through Mieissen, Torgau, Freyberg; is at
+Peterswalde, eastern slope of the Metal Mountains, August 25th;
+all the Columns now on Bohemian ground.
+
+"Friedrich had crossed Elbe by the Bridge of Meissen: on the
+southern shore, politely waiting to receive his Majesty, there
+stood Feldmarschall the Duke of Weissenfels; to whom the King gave
+his hand," no doubt in friendly style, "and talked for above half
+an hour,"--with such success! thinks Friedrich by and by. We have
+heard of Weissenfels before; the same poor Weissenfels who was
+Wilhelmina's Wooer in old time, now on the verge of sixty;
+an extremely polite but weakish old gentleman; accidentally
+preserved in History. One of those conspicuous "Human Clothes-
+Horses" (phantasmal all but the digestive part), which abound in
+that Eighteenth Century and others like it; and distress your
+Historical studies. Poor old soul; now Feldmarschall and Commander-
+in-Chief here. Has been in Turk and other Wars; with little profit
+to himself or others. Used to like his glass, they say; is still
+very poor, though now Duke in reality as well as title (succeeded
+two egregious Brothers, some years since, who had been
+spendthrift): he has still one other beating to get in this world,
+--from Friedrich next year. Died altogether, two years hence; and
+Wilhelmina heard no more of him.
+
+"At Meissen Bridge, say some, was this Half-hour's Interview;
+at Pirna, the Bridge of Pirna, others say; [See Orlich, ii. 25;
+and <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> ii. 1166.]--quite
+indifferent to us which. At Pirna, and hither and thither in Saxon
+Switzerland, Friedrich certainly was. 'Who ever saw such positions,
+your Majesty?' For Friedrich is always looking out, were it even
+from the window of his carriage, and putting military problems to
+himself in all manner of scenery, 'What would a man do, in that
+kind of ground, if attacking, if attacked? with that hill, that
+brook, that bit of bog?' and advises every Officer to be
+continually doing the like. [MILITARY INSTRUCTIONS? RULES FOR A
+GOOD COMMANDER OF &c.?--I have, for certain, read this Passage;
+but the reference is gone again, like a sparrow from the house-
+top!] That is the value of picturesque or other scenery to
+Friedrich, and their effect on good Prussian Officers and him.
+
+"... At Tetschen, Colonel Kahlbutz," diligent Prussian Colonel,
+"plucks out those 100 Austrians from their rock nest there;
+makes them prisoners of war;--which detained the Leitmeritz branch
+of us two days. August 28th, junction at Leitmeritz thereupon.
+Magazine established there. Boats coming on presently. Friedrich
+himself camped at Lobositz in this part,"--Lobositz, or Lowositz,
+which he will remember one day.
+
+"AUGUST 29th, March to Budin; that is, southward, across the Eger,
+arrive within forty miles of Prag. Austrian Bathyani, summoned
+hastily out of his Bavarian posts, to succor in this pressing
+emergency, has arrived in these neighborhoods,--some 12,000
+regulars under him, preceded by clouds of hussars, whom Ziethen
+smites a little, by way of handsel;--no other Austrian force to
+speak of hereabouts; and we are now between Bathyani and Prag.
+
+"SEPTEMBER 1st, To Mickowitz, near Welwarn, twenty miles from Prag.
+September 2d, Camp on the Weissenberg there." [<italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> i. 1080.]
+
+And so they are all assembled about Prag, begirdling the poor
+City,--third Siege it has stood within these three years (since
+that moonlight November night in 1741);--and are only waiting for
+their heavy artillery to begin battering. The poor inhabitants, in
+spite of three sieges; the 10,000 raw militia-men, mostly of
+Hungarian breed; the 4,000 regulars, and Harsch and old Ogilvy, are
+all disposed to do their best. Friedrich is naturally in haste to
+get hold of Prag. But he finds, on taking survey: that the sword-
+in-hand method is not now, as in 1741, feasible at all; that the
+place is in good posture of strength; and will need a hot battering
+to tear it open. Owing to that accident at Tetschen, the siege-
+cannon are not yet come up: "Build your batteries, your Moldau-
+bridges, your communications, till the cannon come; and beware of
+Bathyani meddling with your cannon by the road!"
+
+"Bathyani is within twenty miles of us, at Beraun, a compact little
+Town to southwest; gathering a Magazine there; and ready for
+enterprises,--in more force than Friedrich guesses. 'Drive him out,
+seize that Magazine of his!' orders Friedrich (September 5th);
+and despatches General Hacke on it, a right man,"--at whose wedding
+we assisted (wedding to an heiress, long since, in Friedrich
+Wilhelm's time), if anybody now remembered. "And on the morrow
+there falls out a pretty little 'Action of Beraun,' about which
+great noise was made in the Gazettes PRO and CONTRA: which did not
+dislodge Bathyani by airy means; but which might easily have ruined
+the impetuous Hacke and his 6,000, getting into masked batteries,
+Pandour whirlwinds, charges of horses 'from front, from rear, and
+from both flanks,'--had not he, with masterly promptitude, whirled
+himself out of it, snatched instantly what best post there was, and
+defended himself inexpugnably there, for six hours, till relief
+came." [DIE BEY BERAUN VORGEFALLENE ACTION (in Seyfarth, <italic>
+Beylage, <end italic> i. 136, 137).] Brilliant little action, well
+performed on both sides, but leading to nothing; and which shall
+not concern us farther. Except to say that Bathyani did now, more
+at his leisure, retire out of harm's way; and begin collecting
+Magazines at Pilsen far rearward, which may prove useful to Prince
+Karl, in the route Prince Karl is upon.
+
+Siege-cannon having at last come (September 8th), the batteries are
+all mounted:--on Wednesday, 9th, late at night, the Artillery, "in
+enormous quantity," opens its dread throat; poor Prag is startled
+from its bed by torrents of shot, solid and shell, from three
+different quarters; and makes haste to stand to its guns.
+From three different quarters; from Bubenetsch northward; from the
+Upland of St. Lawrence (famed WEISSENBERG, or White-Hill) westward;
+and from the Ziscaberg eastward (Hill of Zisca, where iron Zisca
+posted himself on a grand occasion once),--which latter is a broad
+long Hill, west end of it falling sheer over Prag; and on another
+point of it, highest point of all, the Praguers have a strong
+battery and works. The Prag guns otherwise are not too effectual;
+planted mostly on low ground. By much the best Prag battery is this
+of the Ziscaberg. And this, after two days' experience had of it,
+the Prussians determine to take on the morrow.
+
+SEPTEMBER 12th, Schwerin, who commands on that side, assaults
+accordingly; with the due steadfastness and stormfulness:
+throwing shells and balls by way of prelude. Friedrich, with some
+group of staff-officers and dignitaries, steps out on the
+Bubenetsch post, to see how this affair of the Ziscaberg will
+prosper: the Praguers thereabouts, seeing so many dignitaries, turn
+cannon on them. "Disperse, IHR HERREN; have a care!" cried
+Friedrich; not himself much minding, so intent upon the Ziscaberg.
+And could have skipt indifferently over your cannon-balls ploughing
+the ground,--had not one fateful ball shattered out the life of
+poor Prince Wilhelm; a good young Cousin of his, shot down here at
+his hand. Doubtless a sharp moment for the King. Prince Margraf
+Wilhelm and a poor young page, there they lie dead; indifferent to
+the Ziscaberg and all coming wars of mankind. Lamentation,
+naturally, for this young man,--Brother to the one who fell at
+Mollwitz, youngest Brother of the Margraf Karl, who commands in
+this Bubenetsch redoubt:--But we must lift our eye-glass again;
+see how Schwerin is prospering. Schwerin, with due steadfastness
+and stormfulness, after his prelude of bomb-shells, rushes on
+double-quick; cannot be withstood; hurls out the Praguers, and
+seizes their battery; a ruinous loss to them.
+
+Their grand Zisca redoubt is gone, then; and two subsidiary small
+redoubts behind it withal, which the French had built, and named
+"the magpie-nests (NIDS A PIE);" these also are ours. And we
+overhang, from our Zisca Hill, the very roofs, as it were;
+and there is nothing but a long bare curtain now in this quarter,
+ready to be battered in breach, and soon holed, if needful. It is
+not needful,--not quite. In the course of three days more, our
+Bubenetsch battery, of enormous power, has been so diligent, it has
+set fire to the Water-mill; burns irretrievably the Water-mill, and
+still worse, the wooden Sluice of the Moldau; so that the river
+falls to the everywhere wadable pitch. And Governor Harsch
+perceives that all this quarter of the Town is open to any comer;--
+and, in fact, that he will have to get away, the best he can.
+
+White flag accordingly (Tuesday, 15th): "Free withdrawal, to the
+Wischerad; won't you?" "By no manner of means!" answers Friedrich.
+Bids Schwerin from his Ziscaberg make a hole or two in that
+"curtain" opposite him; and gets ready for storm. Upon which
+Harsch, next morning, has to beat the chamade, and surrender
+Prisoner of War. And thus, Wednesday, 16th, it is done: a siege of
+one week, no more,--after all that thrashing of grain, drilling of
+militia, and other spirited preparation. Harsch could not help it;
+the Prussian cannonading was so furious. [Orlich, ii. 36-39;
+<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 1082, and ii. 1168;
+<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> iii. 56; &c. &c.]
+
+Prag has to swear fealty to the Kaiser; and "pay a ransom of
+200,000 pounds." Drilled militia, regulars, Hungarians, about
+16,000,--only that many of the Tolpatches contrived to whisk
+loose,--are marched prisoners to Glatz and other strong places.
+Prag City, with plenty of provision in it, is ours. A brilliant
+beginning of a Campaign; the eyes of all Europe turned again, in
+very various humor, on this young King. If only the French do their
+duty, and hang well on the skirts of Marshal Traun (or of Prince
+Karl, the Cloak of Traun), who is hastening hitherward all he can.
+
+
+
+                          Chapter III.
+
+    FRIEDRICH, DILIGENT IN HIS BOHEMIAN CONQUESTS, UNEXPECTEDLY
+       COMES UPON PRINCE KARL, WITH NO FRENCH ATTENDING HIM.
+
+This electrically sudden operation on Prag was considered by
+astonished mankind, whatever else they might think about it, a
+decidedly brilliant feat of War: falling like a bolt out of the
+blue,--like three bolts, suddenly coalescing over Prag, and
+striking it down. Friedrich himself, though there is nothing of
+boast audible here or anywhere, was evidently very well satisfied;
+and thought the aspects good. There is Prince Karl whirling
+instantly back from his Strasburg Prospects; the general St. Vitus
+Dance of Austrian things rising higher and higher in these home
+parts:--reasonable hope that "in the course of one Campaign," proud
+obstinate Austria might feel itself so wrung and screwed as to be
+glad of Peace with neighbors not wishing War. That was the young
+King's calculation at this time. And, had France done at all as it
+promised,--or had the young King himself been considerably wiser
+than he was,--he had not been disappointed in the way we shall see!
+
+Friedrich admits he did not understand War at this period. His own
+scheme now was: To move towards the southwest, there to abolish
+Bathyani and his Tolpatches, who are busy gathering Magazines for
+Prince Karl's advent; to seize the said Magazines, which will be
+very useful to us; then advance straight towards the Passes of the
+Bohemian Mountains. Towns of Furth, Waldmunchen, unfortunate Town
+of Cham (burnt by Trenck, where masons are now busy); these stand
+successive in the grand Pass, through which tbe highway runs;
+some hundred miles or so from where we are: march, at one's
+swiftest, thitherward, Bathyani's Magazines to help; and there
+await Prince Karl? It was Friedrich's own notion; not a bad one,
+though not the best. The best, he admits, would have been: To stay
+pretty much where he was; abolish Bathyani's Tolpatch people,
+seizing their Magazines, and collecting others; in general, well
+rooting and fencing himself in Prag, and in the Circles that lie
+thereabouts upon the Elbe,--bounded to southward by the Sazawa
+(branch of the Moldau), which runs parallel to the Elbe;--but well
+refusing to stir much farther at such an advanced season of
+the year.
+
+That second plan would have been the wisest:--then why not, follow
+it? Too tame a plan for the youthful mind. Besides, we perceive, as
+indeed is intimated by himself, he dreaded the force of public
+opinion in France. "Aha, look at your King of Prussia again.
+Gone to conquer Bohemia; and, except the Three Circles he himself
+is to have of it, lets Bohemia go to the winds!" This sort of
+thing, Friedrich admits, he dreaded too much, at that young period;
+so loud had the criticisms been on him, in the time of the Breslau
+Treaty: "Out upon your King of Prussia; call you that an honorable
+Ally!" Undoubtedly a weakness in the young King; inasmuch, says he,
+as "every General [and every man, add we] should look to the fact,
+not to the rumor of the fact." Well; but, at least, he will adopt
+his own other notion; that of making for the Passes of the Bohemian
+Mountains; to abolish Bathyani at least, and lock the door upon
+Prince Karl's advent? That was his own plan; and, though second-
+best, that also would have done well, had there been no third.
+
+But there was, as we hinted, a third plan, ardently favored by
+Belleisle, whose war-talent Friedrich much respected at this time:
+plan built on Belleisle's reminiscences of the old Tabor-Budweis
+businesses, and totally inapplicable now. Belleisle said,
+"Go southeast, not southwest; right towards the Austrian Frontier
+itself; that will frighten Austria into a fine tremor. Shut up the
+roads from Austria: Budweis, Neuhaus; seize those two Highroad
+Towns, and keep them, if you would hold Bohemia; the want of them
+was our ruin there." Your ruin, yes: but your enemy was not coming
+from Alsace and the southwest then. He was coming from Austria;
+and your own home lay on the southwest: it is all different now!
+Friedrich might well think himself bewitched not to have gone for
+Cham and Furth, and the Passes of the Bohmer-Wald, according to his
+own notion. But so it was; he yielded to the big reputation of
+Belleisle, and to fear of what the world would say of him in
+France; a weakness which he will perhaps be taught not to repeat.
+In fact, he is now about to be taught several things;--and will
+have to pay his school-wages as he goes.
+
+
+   FRIEDRICH, LEAVING SMALL GARRISON IN PRAG, RUSHES SWIFTLY UP
+   THE MOLDAU VALLEY, UPON THE TABOR-BUDWEIS COUNTRY; TO PLEASE
+                       HIS FRENCH FRIENDS.
+
+Friedrich made no delay in Prag; in haste at this late time of
+year. September 17th, on the very morrow of the Siege, the
+Prussians get in motion southward; on the 19th, Friedrich, from his
+post to north of the City, defiles through Prag, on march to
+Kunraditz,--first stage on that questionable Expedition up the
+Moldau Valley, right bank; towards Tabor, Budweis, Neuhaus;
+to threaten Austria, and please Belleisle and the French.
+
+Prag is left under General Einsiedel with a small garrison of
+5,000;--Einsiedel, a steady elderly gentleman, favorite of
+Friedrich Wilhelm's, has brief order, or outline of order to be
+filled up by his own good sense. Posadowsky follows the march, with
+as many meal-wagons as possible,--draught-cattle in very
+ineffectual condition. Our main Magazine is at Leitmeritz (should
+have been brought on to Prag, thinks Friedrich); Commissariat very
+ill-managed in comparison to what it ought to be,--to what it shall
+be, if we ever live to make another Campaign. Heavy artillery is
+left in Prag (another fault); and from each regiment, one of its
+baggage-wagons. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 1083;
+Orlich, ii. 41 et seqq.; <italic> Frederic, iii. 59; &c.] "We rest
+a day here at Kunraditz: 21st September, get to the Sazawa River;
+--22d, to Bistritz (rest a day);--26th, to Miltschin; and 27th, to
+Tabor:"--But the Diary would be tedious.
+
+Friedrich goes in two Columns; one along the great road towards
+Tabor, under Schwerin this, and Friedrich mainly with him; the
+other to the right, along the River's bank, under Leopold, Young
+Dessauer, which has to go by wild country roads, or now and then
+roads of its own making; and much needs the pioneer (a difficult
+march in the shortening days). Posadowsky follows with the
+proviant, drawn by cattle of the horse and ox species, daily
+falling down starved: great swearing there too, I doubt not!
+General Nassau is vanguard, and stretches forward successfully at a
+much lighter pace.
+
+There are two Rivers, considerable branches of the Moldau, coming
+from eastward; which, and first of them the Sazawa, concern us
+here. After mounting the southern Uplands from Prag for a day or
+two, you then begin to drop again, into the hollow of a River
+called Sazawa, important in Bohemian Wars. It is of winding course,
+the first considerable branch of the Moldau, rising in Teutschbrod
+Country, seventy or eighty miles to east of us: in regard to
+Sazawa, there is, at present, no difficulty about crossing; the
+Country being all ours. After the Sazawa, mount again, long miles,
+day after day, through intricate stony desolation, rocks, bogs,
+untrimmed woods, you will get to Miltschin, thence to Tabor:
+Miltschin is the crown of that rough moor country; from Prag to
+Tabor is some sixty miles. After Miltschin the course of those
+brown mountain-brooks is all towards the Luschnitz, the next
+considerable branch of the Moldau; branch still longer and more
+winding than the Sazawa; Tabor towers up near this branch; Budweis,
+on the Moldau itself, is forty miles farther; and there at last you
+are out of the stony moors, and in a rich champaign comfortable to
+man and horse, were you but once there, after plodding through the
+desolations. But from that Sazawa by the Luschnitz on to Budweis,
+mounting and falling in such fashion, there must be ninety miles or
+thereby. Plod along; and keep a sharp eye on the whirling clouds of
+Pandours, for those too have got across upon us,--added to the
+other tempests of Autumn.
+
+On the ninth day of their march, the Prussians begin to descry on
+the horizon ahead the steeples and chimney-tops of Tabor, on its
+high scarped rock, or "Hill of Zisca,"--for it was Zisca and his
+Hussites that built themselves this Bit of Inexpugnability, and
+named it Tabor from their Bibles,--in those waste mountain regions.
+On the tenth day (27th September), the Prussians without difficulty
+took Tabor; walls being ruined, garrison small. We lie at Tabor
+till the 30th, last day of September. Thence, 2d October, part of
+us to Moldau-Tein rightwards; where cross the Moldau by a Bridge,--
+"Bridge" one has heard of, in old Broglio times;--cross there, with
+intent (easily successful) to snatch that "Castle of Frauenberg,"
+darling of Broglio, for which he fought his Pharsalia of a Sahay to
+no purpose!
+
+Both Columns got united at Tabor; and paused for a day or two, to
+rest, and gather up their draggled skirts there. The Expedition
+does not improve in promise, as we advance in it; the march one of
+the most untowardly; and Posadowsky comes up with only half of his
+provision-carts,--half of his cattle having fallen down of bad
+weather, hill-roads and starvation; what could he do? That is an
+ominous circumstance, not the less.
+
+Three things are against the Prussians on this march; two of them
+accidental things. FIRST, there is, at this late season too, the
+intrinsic nature of the Country; which Friedrich with emphasis
+describes as boggy, stony, precipitous; a waste, hungry and
+altogether barren Country,--too emphatically so described. But then
+SECONDLY, what might have been otherwise, the Population, worked
+upon by Austrian officials, all fly from the sight of us;
+nothing but fireless deserted hamlets; and the corn, if they ever
+had any, all thrashed and hidden. No amount of money can purchase
+any service from them. Poor dark creatures; not loving Austria
+much, but loving some others even less, it would appear. Of Bigoted
+Papist Creed, for one thing; that is a great point. We do not
+meddle with their worship more or less; but we are Heretics, and
+they hate us as the Night. Which is a dreadful difficulty you
+always have in Bohemia: nowhere but in the Circle of Konigsgraz,
+where there are Hussites (far to the rear of us at this time), will
+you find it otherwise. This is difficulty second.
+
+Then, THIRDLY, what much aggravates it,--we neglected to abolish
+Bathyani! And here are Bathyani's Pandours come across the Moldau
+on us. Plenty of Pandours;--to whom "10,000 fresh Hungarians," of a
+new Insurrection which has been got up there, are daily speeding
+forward to add themselves:--such a swarm of hornets, as darkens the
+very daylight for you. Vain to scourge them down, to burn them off
+by blaze of gunpowder: they fly fast; but are straightway back
+again. They lurk in these bushy wildernesses, scraggy woods:
+no foraging possible, unless whole regiments are sent out to do it;
+you cannot get a letter safely carried for them. They are an
+unspeakable contemptible grief to the earnest leader of men.--Let
+us proceed, however; it will serve nothing to complain. Let us hope
+the French sit well on the skirts of Prince Karl: these sorrowful
+labors may all turn to good, in that case.
+
+Friedrich pushes on from Tabor; shoots partly (as we have seen)
+across the Moldau, to the left bank as well; captures romantic
+Frauenberg on its high rock, where Broglio got into such a fluster
+once. We could push to Pisek, too, and make a "Bivouac of Pisek,"
+if we lost our wits! Nassau is in Budweis, in Neuhaus; and proper
+garrisons are gone thither: nothing wanting on our side of the
+business. But these Pandours, these 10,000 Insurrection Hungarians,
+with their Trencks spurring them! A continual unblessed swarm of
+hornets, these; which shut out the very light of day from us.
+Too literally the light of day: we can get no free messaging from
+part to part of our own Army even. "As many as six Orderlies have
+been despatched to an outlying General; and not one of them could
+get through to him. They have snapt up three Letter-bags destined
+for the King himself. For four weeks he is absolutely shut out from
+the rest of Europe;" knows not in the least what the Kaiser, or the
+Most Christian or any other King, is doing; or whether the French
+are sitting well on Prince Karl's skirts, or not attempting that at
+all. This also is a thing to be amended, a thing you had to learn,
+your Majesty? An Army absolutely shut out from news, from letters,
+messages to or fro, and groping its way in darkness, owing to these
+circumambient thunder-clouds of Tolpatches, is not a well-situated
+Army! And alas, when at last the Letter-bag did get through, and--
+But let us not anticipate!
+
+At Tabor there arose two opinions; which, in spite of the King's
+presence, was a new difficulty. South from Tabor a day's march, the
+Highway splits; direct way for Vienna; left-hand goes to Neuhaus,
+right-hand, or straightforward rather, goes to Budweis, bearing
+upon Linz: which of these two? Nassau has already seized Budweis;
+and it is a habitable champaign country in comparison.
+Neuhaus, farther from the Moldau and its uses, but more imminent on
+Austria, would be easy to seize; and would frighten the Enemy more.
+Leopold the Young Dcssauer is for Budweis; rapid Schwerin, a hardy
+outspoken man, is emphatic for the other place as Head-quarter.
+So emphatic are both, that the two Generals quarrel there;
+and Friedrich needs his authority to keep them from outbreaks, from
+open incompatibility henceforth, which would be destructive to the
+service. For the rest, Friedrich seizes both places; sends a
+detachment to Neuhaus as well; but holds by Budweis and the Moldau
+region with his main Army; which was not quite gratifying to the
+hardy Schwerin. On the opposite or left bank, holding Frauenberg,
+the renowned Hill-fortress there, we make inroads at discretion:
+but the country is woody, favorable to Pandours; and the right bank
+is our chief scene of action. How we are to maintain ourselves in
+this country? To winter in these towns between the Sazawa and the
+Luschnitz? Unless the French sit well on Prince Karl's skirts, it
+will not be possible.
+
+
+     THE FRENCH ARE LITTLE GRATEFUL FOR THE PLEASURE DONE THEM
+                      AT SUCH RUINOUS EXPENSE.
+
+French sitting well on Prince Karl's skirts? They are not molesting
+Prince Karl in the smallest; never tried such a thing;--are turned
+away to the Brisgan, to the Upper Rhine Country; gone to besiege
+Freyburg there, and seize Towns; about the Lake of Constance, as if
+there were no Friedrich in the game! It must be owned the French do
+liberally pay off old scores against Friedrich,--if, except in
+their own imagination, they had old scores against him. No man ever
+delivered them from a more imminent peril; and they, the rope once
+cut that was strangling them, magnificently forget who cut it; and
+celebrate only their own distinguished conduct during and after the
+operation. To a degree truly wonderful.
+
+It was moonlight, clear as day that night, 23d August, when Prince
+Karl had to recross the Rhine, close in their neighborhood;
+[<italic> Guerre de Boheme, <end italic> iii. 196.]--and instead of
+harassing Prince Karl "to half or to whole ruin," as the bargain
+was, their distinguished conduct consisted in going quietly to
+their beds (old Marechal de Noailles even calling back some of his
+too forward subalterns), and joyfully leaving Prince Karl, then and
+afterwards, to cross the Rhine, and march for Bohmen, at his own
+perfect convenience.
+
+"Seckendorf will sit on Karl's skirts," they said: "too late for
+US, this season; next season, you shall see!" Such was their
+theory, after Louis got that cathartic, and rose from bed.
+Schmettau, with his importunities, which at last irritated
+everybody, could make nothing more of it. "Let the King of France
+crown his glories by the Siege of Freyburg, the conquest of
+Brisgau:--for behoof of the poor Kaiser, don't you observe?
+Hither Austria is the Kaiser's;--and furthermore, were Freyburg
+gone, there will be no invading of Elsass again" (which is anotber
+privately very interesting point)!
+
+And there, at Freyburg, the Most Christian King now is, and his
+Army up to the knees in mud, conquering Hither Austria; besieging
+Freyburg, with much difficulty owing to the wet,--besieging there
+with what energy; a spectacle to the world! And has, for the
+present, but one wife, no mistress either! With rapturous eyes
+France looks on; with admiration too big for words. Voltaire, I
+have heard, made pilgrimage to Freyburg, with rhymed Panegyric in
+his pocket; saw those miraculous operations of a Most Christian
+King miraculously awakened; and had the honor to present said
+Panegyric; and be seen, for the first time, by the royal eyes,--
+which did not seem to relish him much. [The Panegyric (EPITRE AU
+ROI DEVANT FRIBOURG) is in <italic> OEuvres de Voltaire, <end
+italic> xvii. 184.] Since the first days of October, Freyburg had
+been under constant assault; "amid rains, amid frosts; a siege long
+and murderous" (to the besieging party);--and was not got till
+November 5th; not quite entirely, the Citadels of it, till November
+25th; Majesty gone home to Paris, to illuminations and triumphal
+arches, in the interim. [Adelung, iv. 266; Barbier, ii. 414 (13th
+November, &c.), for the illuminations, grand in the extreme, in
+spite of wild rains and winds.] It had been a difficult and bloody
+conquest to him, this of Freyburg and the Brisgau Country; and I
+never heard that either the Kaiser or he got sensible advantage by
+it,--though Prince Karl, on the present occasion, might be said to
+get a great deal.
+
+"Seckendorf will do your Prince Karl," they had cried always:
+"Seckendorf and his Prussian Majesty! Are not we conquering Hither
+Austria here, for the Kaiser's behoof?" Seckendorf they did
+officially appoint to pursue; appoint or allow;--and laid all the
+blame on Seckendorf; who perhaps deserved his share of it.
+Very certain it is, Seckendorf did little or nothing to Prince
+Karl; marched "leisurely behind him through the Ober-Pfalz,"--
+skirting Baireuth Country, Karl and he, to Wilhelmina's grief;
+[Her Letters (<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxvii.
+i. 133, &c.).]--"leisurely behind him at a distance of four days,"
+knew better than meddle with Prince Karl. So that Prince Karl, "in
+twenty-one marches," disturbed only by the elements and bad roads,
+reached Waldmunchen 26th September, in the Furth-Cham Country;
+[Ranke, iii. 187.] and was heard to exclaim: "We are let off for
+the fright, then (NOUS VOILA QUITTES POUR LA PEUR)!"--Seckendorf,
+finding nothing to live upon in Ober-Pfalz, could not attend Prince
+Karl farther; but turned leftwards home to Bavaria; made a kind of
+Second "Reconquest of Bavaria" (on exactly the same terms as the
+First, Austrian occupants being all called off to assist in Bohmen
+again);--concerning which, here is an Excerpt:--
+
+"Seckendorf, following at his leisure, and joined by the Hessians
+and Pfalzers, so as now to exceed 30,000, leaves Prince Karl and
+the rest of the enterprise to do as it can; and applies himself,
+for his own share, as the needfulest thing, to getting hold of
+Bavaria again, that his poor Kaiser may have where to lay his head,
+and pay old servants their wages. Dreadfully exclaimed against, the
+old gentleman, especially by the French co-managers: 'Why did not
+the old traitor stick in the rear of Prince Karl, in the difficult
+passes, and drive him prone,--while we went besieging Freyburg, and
+poaching about, trying for a bit of the Brisgau while chance
+served!' A traitor beyond doubt; probably bought with money down:
+thinks Valori. But, after all, what could Seckendorf do? He is now
+of weight for Barenklau and Bavaria, not for much more. He does
+sweep Barenklau and his Austrians from Bavaria, clear out (in the
+course of this October), all but Ingolstadt and two or three strong
+towns,--Passau especially, 'which can be blockaded, and afterwards
+besieged if needful.' For the rest, he is dreadfully ill-off for
+provisions, incapable of the least, attempt on Passau (as Friedrich
+urged, on hearing of him again); and will have to canton himself in
+home-quarters, and live by his shifts till Spring.
+
+"The noise of French censure rises loud, against not themselves,
+but against Seckendorf:--Friedrich, before that Tolpatch eclipse of
+Correspondence [when three of his Letter-bags were seized, and he
+fell quite dark], had too well foreboded, and contemptuously
+expressed his astonishment at the blame BOTH were well earning:
+Passau, said he, cannot you go at least upon Passau; which might
+alarm the Enemy a little, and drag him homewards? 'Adieu, my dear
+Seckendorf, your Officer will tell you how we did the Siege of
+Prag. You and your French are wetted hens (POULES MOUILLEES),'--
+cowering about like drenched hens in a day of set rain. 'As I hear
+nothing of either of you, I must try to get out of this business
+without your help;'"--otherwise it will be ill for me indeed!
+[Excerpted Fragment of a Letter from Friedrich,--(exact date not
+given, date of EXCERPT is, Donanworth Country, 23d September,
+1744),--which the French Agent in Seckendorf's Army had a reading
+of (<italic> Campagnes de Coigny, <end italic> iv. 185-187;
+ib. 216-219: cited in Adelung, iv. 225).] "Which latter expression
+alarmed the French, and set them upon writing and bustling, but not
+upon doing anything."
+
+"Prince Karl had crossed the Rhine unmolested, in the clearest
+moonlight, August 23d-24th; Seckendorf was not wholly got to
+Heilbronn, September 8th: a pretty way behind Prince Karl!
+The 6,000 Hessians, formerly in English pay, indignant Landgraf
+Wilhelm [who never could forgive that Machiavellian conduct of
+Carteret at Hanau, never till he found out what it really was] has,
+this year, put into French pay. And they have now joined
+Seckendorf; [Espagnac, ii. 13; Buchholz, ii. 123.] Prince Friedrich
+[Britannic Majesty's Son-in-law], not good fat Uncle George,
+commanding them henceforth:--with extreme lack of profit to Prince
+Friedrich, to the Hessians, and to the French, as will appear in
+time. These 6,000, and certain thousands of Pfalzers likewise in
+French pay, are now with Seckendorf, and have raised him to above
+30,000;--it is the one fruit King Friedrich has got by that 'Union
+of Frankfurt,' and by all his long prospective haggling, and
+struggling for a 'Union of German Princes in general.' Two pears,
+after that long shaking of the tree; both pears rotten, or indeed
+falling into Seckendorf, who is a basket of such quality!
+'Seckendorf, increased in this munificent manner, can he still do
+nothing?' cry the French: 'the old traitor!'--'I have no
+magazines,' said Seckendorf, 'nothing to live upon, to shoot with;
+no money!' And it is a mutual crescendo between the 'perfidious
+Seckendorf' and them; without work done. In the Nurnberg Country,
+some Hussars of his picked up Lord Holderness, an English
+Ambassador making for Venice by that bad route. 'Prisoner, are not
+you?' But they did not use him ill; on consideration, the Heads of
+Imperial Departments gave him a Pass, and he continued his Venetian
+Journey (result of it zero) without farther molestation that I
+heard of. [Adelung, iv. 222.]
+
+"These French-Seckendorf cunctations, recriminations and drenched-
+hen procedures are an endless sorrow to poor Kaiser Karl; who at
+length can stand it no longer; but resolves, since at least
+Bavaria, though moneyless and in ruins, is his, he will in person
+go thither; confident that there will be victual and equipment
+discoverable for self and Army were he there. Remonstrances avail
+not: 'Ask me to die with honor, ask me not to lie rotting here;'
+[Ib. iv. 241.]--and quits Frankfurt, and the Reich's-Diet and its
+babble, 17th October, 1744 (small sorrow, were it for the last
+time),--and enters his Munchen in the course of a week.
+[17th October, 1744, leaves Frankfurt; arrives in Munchen 23d
+(Adelung, iv. 241-244).] Munchen is transported with joy to see the
+Legitimate Sovereign again; and blazes into illuminations,--
+forgetful who caused its past wretchednesses, hoping only all
+wretchedness is now ended. Let ruined huts, and Cham and the burnt
+Towns, rebuild themselves; the wasted hedges make up their gaps
+again: here is the King come home! Here, sure enough, is an
+unfortunate Kaiser of the Holy Romish Reich, who can once more hope
+to pay his milk-scores, being a loved Kurfurst of Bavaria at least.
+Very dear to the hearts of these poor people;--and to their purses,
+interests and skins, has not he in another sense been dear? What a
+price the ambitions and cracked phantasms of that weak brain have
+cost the seemingly innocent population! Population harried,
+hungered down, dragged off to perish in Italian Wars; a Country
+burnt, tribulated, torn to ruin, under the harrow of Fate and
+ruffian Trenck and Company. Britannic George, rather a dear morsel
+too, has come much cheaper hitherto. England is not yet burnt;
+nothing burning there,--except the dull fire of deliriums;
+Natural Stupidities all set flaming, which (whatever it may BE in
+the way of loss) is not felt as a loss, but rather as a comfort for
+the time being;--and in fact there are only, say, a forty or fifty
+thousand armed Englishmen rotted down, and scarcely a Hundred
+Millions of money yet spent. Nothing to speak of, in the cause of
+Human Liberty. Why Populations suffer for their guilty Kings?
+My friend, it is the Populations too that are guilty in having such
+Kings. Reverence, sacred Respect for Human Worth, sacred Abhorrence
+of Human Unworth, have you considered what it means? These poor
+Populations have it not, or for long generations have had it less
+and less. Hence, by degrees, this sort of 'Kings' to them, and
+enormous consequences following!"--
+
+Karl VII. got back to Munchen 23d October, 1744; and the tar-
+barrels being once burnt, and indispensable sortings effected, he
+went to the field along with Seckendorf, to encourage his men under
+Seckendorf, and urge the French by all considerations to come on.
+And really did what he could, poor man. But the cordage of his life
+had been so strained and torn, he was not now good for much;
+alas, it had been but little he was ever good for. A couple of dear
+Kurfursts, his Father and he; have stood these Bavarian Countries
+very high, since the Battle of Blenheim and downwards!
+
+
+
+                           Chapter IV.
+
+        FRIEDRICH REDUCED TO STRAlTS; CANNOT MAINTAIN HIS
+              MOLDAU CONQUESTS AGAINST PRICE KARL.
+
+One may fancy what were Friedrich's reflections when he heard that
+Prince Karl had, prosperously and unmolested, got across, by those
+Passes from the Ober-Pfalz, into Bohmen and the Circle of Pilsen,
+into junction with Bathyani and his magazines; ["At Mirotitz,
+October 2d" (Ranke, iii. 194); Orlich, ii. 49.] heard, moreover,
+that the Saxons, 20,000 strong, under Weissenfels, crossing the
+Metal Mountains, coming on by Eger and Karlsbad regions, were about
+uniting with him (bound by Treaty to assist the Hungarian Majesty
+when invaded);--and had finally, what confirms everything, that the
+said Prince Karl in person (making for Budweis, "just seen his
+advanced guard," said rumor under mistake) was but few miles off.
+Few miles off, on the other side of the Moldau;--of unknown
+strength, hidden in the circumambient clouds of Pandours.
+
+Suppressing all the rages and natural reflections but those needful
+for the moment, Friedrich (October 4th, by Moldau-Tein) dashes
+across the Moldau, to seek Prince Karl, at the place indicated, and
+at once smite him down if possible;--that will be a remedy for all
+things. Prince Karl is not there, nor was; the indication had been
+false; Friedrich searches about, for four days, to no purpose.
+Prince Karl, he then learns for certain, has crossed the Moldau
+farther down, farther northward, between Prag and us. Means to cut
+us off from Prag, then, which is our fountain of life in these
+circumstances? That is his intention:--"Old Traun, who is with him,
+understands his trade!" thinks Friedrich. Traun, or the Prince, is
+diligently forming magazines, all the Country carrying to him, in
+the Town of Beneschau, hither side of the Sazawa, some seventy
+miles north of us, an important Town where roads meet:--unless we
+can get hold of Beneschau, it will be ill with us here! Across the
+River again, at any rate; and let us hasten thither. That is an
+affair which must be looked to; and speed is necessary!
+
+OCTOBER 8th, After four days' search ending in this manner,
+Friedrich swiftly crosses towards Tabor again, to Bechin (over on
+the Luschnitz, one march), there to collect himself for Beneschau
+and the other intricacies. Towards Tabor again, by his Bridge of
+Moldau-Tein;--clouds of Pandour people, larger clouds than usual,
+hanging round; hidden by the woods till Friedrich is gone.
+Friedrich being gone, there occurs the AFFAIR OF MOLDAU-TEIN, much
+talked of in Prussian Books. Of which, in extreme condensation,
+this is the essence:--
+
+"OCTOBER 9th. Friedrich once off to Bechin, the Pandour clouds
+gather on his rearguard next day at Tein Bridge here, to the number
+of about 10,000 [rumor counts 14,000]; and with desperate intent,
+and more regularity than usual, attack the Tein-Bridge Party, which
+consists of perhaps 2,000 grenadiers and hussars, the whole under
+Ziethen's charge,--obliged to wait for a cargo of Bread-wagons
+here. 'Defend your Bridge, with cannon, with case-shot:' that is
+what the grenadiers do. The Pandour cloud, with horrid lanes cut in
+it, draws back out of this; then plunges at the River itself, which
+can be ridden above or below; rides it, furious, by the thousand:
+'Off with your infantry; quit the Bridge!' cries Ziethen to his
+Captain there: 'Retire you, Parthian-like; thrice-steady,' orders
+Ziethen: 'It is to be hoped our hussars can deal with this mad-
+doggery!' And they do it; cutting in with iron discipline, with
+fierceness not undrilled; a wedge of iron hussars, with ditto
+grenadiers continually wheeling, like so many reapers steady among
+wind-tossed grain; and gradually give the Pandours enough.
+Seven hours of it, in all: 'of their sixty cartridges the
+grenadiers had fired fifty-four,' when it ended, about 7 P.M.
+The coming Bread-wagons, getting word, had to cast their loaves
+into the River (sad to think of); and make for Bechin at their
+swiftest. But the rearguard got off with its guns, in this
+victorious manner: thanks to Major-General Ziethen, Colonel Reusch
+and the others concerned. [<italic> Feldzuge der Preussen, i. 268;
+Orlich, ii. 55.]
+
+"Ziethen handsels his Major-Generalcy in this fine way:
+[Patent given him "3d October, 1744," only a week ago, "and ordered
+to be dated eight months back" (Rodenbeck, i. 109).] a man who has
+had promotion, and also has had none, and may again come to have
+none;--and is able to do either way. Never mind, my excellent tacit
+friend! Ziethen is five-and-forty gone; has a face which is
+beautiful to me, though one of the coarsest. Face thrice-honest,
+intricately ploughed with thoughts which are well kept silent (the
+thoughts, indeed, being themselves mostly inarticulate; thoughts of
+a simple-hearted, much-enduring, hot-tempered son of iron and
+oatmeal);--decidedly rather likable, with its lazily hanging
+under-lip, and respectable bearskin cylinder atop."
+
+
+   FRIEDRICH TRIES TO HAVE BATTLE FROM PRINCE KARL, IN THE MOLDAU  
+   COUNTRIES; CANNOT, OWING TO THE SKILL OF PRINCE KARL OR OF OLD    
+     FELDMARSCHALL TRAUN;--HAS TO RETIRE BEHIND THE SAZAWA, AND        
+        ULTIMATELY BEHIND THE ELBE, WITH MUCH LABOR IN VAIN.
+
+OCTOBER 14th-18th: RETREAT FROM BECHIN-TABOR COUNTRY TO BENESCHAU.
+... "These Pandours give us trouble enough; no Magazine here, no
+living to be had in this Country beside them. Unfortunate Colonel
+Jahnus went out from Tabor lately, to look after requisitioned
+grains: infinite Pandours set upon him [Muhlhausen is the memorable
+place]; Jahnus was obstinate (too obstinate, thinks Friedrich), and
+perished on the ground, he and 200 of his. [<italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> iii. 61.] Nay, next, a swarm of them came to
+Tabor itself, Nadasti at their head; to try whether Tabor, with its
+small garrison, could not be escaladed, and perhaps Prince Henri,
+who lies sick there, be taken? Tabor taught them another lesson;
+sent them home with heads broken;--which Friedrich thinks was an
+extremely suitable thing. But so it stands: Here by the thousand
+and the ten thousand they hang round us; and Prince Karl-- It is of
+all things necessary we get hold of that Beneschau, and the
+Magazine he is gathering there!
+
+"Rapidity is indispensable,--and yet how quit Tabor? We have
+detachments out at Neuhaus, at Budweis, and in Tabor 300 men in
+hospital, whom there are no means of carrying. To leave them to the
+Tolpaches? Friedrich confesses he was weak on this occasion;
+he could not leave these 300 men, as was his clear duty, in this
+extremity of War. He ordered in his Neuhaus Detachment; not yet any
+of the others. He despatched Schmerin towards Beneschau with all
+his speed; Schwerin was lucky enough to take Beneschau and its
+provender,--a most blessed fortune,--and fences himself there.
+Hearing which, Friedrich, having now got the Neuhaus Detachment in
+hand, orders the other Three, the Budweis, the Tabor here, and the
+Frauenberg across the River, to maintain themselves; and then,
+leaving those southern regions to their chance, hastens towards
+Beneschau and Schwerin; encamps (October 18th) near Beneschau,--
+'Camp of Konopischt,' unattackable Camp, celebrated in the Prussian
+Books;--and there, for eight days, still on the south side of
+Sazawa, tries every shift to mend the bad posture of affairs in
+that Luschnitz-Sazawa Country. His Three Garrisons (3,000 men in
+them, besides the 300 sick) he now sees will not be able to
+maintain themselves; and he sends in succession 'eight messengers,'
+not one messenger of whom could get through, to bid them come away.
+His own hope now is for a Battle with Prince Karl; which might
+remedy all things. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic>
+iii. 62-64.]"
+
+That is Friedrich's wish; but it is by no means Traun's, who sees
+that hunger and wet weather will of themselves suffice for
+Friedrich. There ensues accordingly, for three weeks to come, in
+that confused Country, a series of swift shufflings, checkings and
+manoeuvrings between these two, which is gratifying and instructive
+to the strategic mind, but cannot be inflicted upon common readers.
+Two considerable chess-players, an old and a young; their chess-
+board a bushy, rocky, marshy parallelogram, running fifty miles
+straight east from Prag, and twenty or fewer south, of which Prag
+is the northwest angle, and Beneschau, or the impregnable
+Konopischt the southwest: the reader must conceive it; and how
+Traun will not fight Friedrich, yet makes him skip hither and
+thither, chiefly by threatening his victuals. Friedrich's main
+magazine is now at Pardubitz, the extreme northeast angle of the
+parallelogram. Parallelogram has one river in it, with the
+innumerable rocks and brooks and quagmires, the river Sazawa;
+and on the north side, where are Kuttenberg, Czaslau, Chotusitz,
+places again become important in this business, it is bounded by
+another river, the Elbe. Intricate manoeuvring there is here, for
+three weeks following: "old Traun an admirable man!" thinks
+Friedrich, who ever after recognized Traun as his Schoolmaster in
+the art of War. We mark here and there a date, and leave it
+to readers. 
+
+"RADICZ, OCTOBER 21st-22d. At Radicz, a march to southwest of us,
+and on our side of the Moldau, the Saxons, under Weissenfels,
+20,000 effective, join Prince Karl; which raises his force to
+69,514 men, some 10,000 more than Friedrich is master of. [Orlich,
+ii. 66.] Prospect of wintering between the Luschnitz and the Sazawa
+there is now little; unless they will fight us, and be beaten.
+Friedrich, from his inaccessible Camp of Konopischt, manoeuvres,
+reconnoitres, in all directions, to produce this result; but to no
+purpose. An Austrian Detachment did come, to look after Beneschau
+and the Magazines there; but rapidly drew back again, finding
+Konopischt on their road, and how matters were. Friedrich will
+guard the door of this Sazawa-Elbe tract of Country; hope of the
+Sazawa-Luschnitz tract has, in few days, fallen extinct. Here is
+news come to Konopischt: our Three poor Garrisons, Budweis, Tabor,
+Frauenberg, already all lost; guns and men, after defence to the
+last cartridge,--in Frauenberg their water was cut off, it was
+eight-and-forty hours of thirst at Frauenberg:--one way or other,
+they are all Three gone; eight couriers galloping with message,
+'Come away,' were all picked up by the Pandours; so they stood, and
+were lost. 'Three thousand fighting men gone, for the weak chance
+of saving three hundred who were in hospital!' thinks Friedrich:
+War is not a school of the weak pities. For the chance of ten, you
+lose a hundred and the ten too. Sazawa-Elbe tract of country, let
+us vigilantly keep the door of that!
+
+"SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24th, Friedrich out reconnoitring from
+Konopischt discovers of a certainty that the whole Austrian-Saxon
+force is now advaucing towards Beneschau, and will, this night,
+encamp at Marschowitz, to southwest, only one march from us! On the
+instant Friedrich hurries back; gets his Army on march thitherward,
+though the late October sun is now past noon; off instantly;
+a stroke yonder will perhaps be the cure of all. Such roads we had,
+says Friedrich, as never Army travelled before: long after
+nightfall, we arrive near the Austrian camp, bivouac as we can till
+daylight return. At the first streak of day, Friedrich and his
+chief generals are on the heights with their spy-glasses:
+Austrian Army sure enough; and there they have altered their
+posture overnight (for Traun too has been awake); they lie now
+opposite our RIGHT flank; 'on a scarped height, at the foot of
+which, through swamps and quagmires, runs a muddy stream.'
+Unattackable on this side: their right flank and foot are safe
+enough. Creep round and see their left:--Nothing but copses, swampy
+intricacies! We may shoulder arms again, and go back to Konopischt:
+no fight here! [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> iii. 63,
+64; Orlich, ii. 69.] Speaking of defensive Campaigns, says
+Friedrich didactically, years afterwards, 'If such situations are
+to answer the purpose intended, the front and flanks must be
+equally strong, but the rear entirely open. Such, for instance, are
+those heights which have an extensive front, and whose flanks are
+covered by morasses:--as was Prince Karl's Camp at Marschowitz in
+the year 1744, with its front covered by a stream, and the wings by
+deep hollows; or that which we ourselves then occupied at
+Konopischt,--as you well remember. [<italic> Military Instructions
+<end italic> (above cited), p. 44.]
+
+"OCTOBER 26th-NOVEMBER 1st. The Sazawa-Luschnitz tract of Country
+is quite lost, then; lost with damages: the question now is, Can we
+keep the Sazawa-Elbe tract? For about three weeks more, Friedrich
+struggles for that object; cannot compass that either. Want of
+horse-provender is very great:--country entirely eaten, say the
+peasants, and not a truss remaining. October 26th, Friedrich has to
+cross the Sazawa; we must quit the door of that tract (hunger
+driving us), and fight for the interior in detail. Traun gets to
+Beneschau in that cheap way; and now, in behalf of Traun, the
+peasants find forage enough, being zealous for Queen and creed.
+Pandours spread themselves all over this Sazawa-Elbe country;
+endanger our subsistences, make our lives miserable. It is the old
+story: Friedrich, famine and mud and misery of Pandours compelling,
+has to retire northward, Elbe-ward, inch by inch; whither the
+Austrians follow at a safe distance, and, in spite of all
+manoeuvring, cannot be got to fight.
+
+"Brave General Nassau, who much distinguishes himself in these
+businesses, has (though Friedrich does not yet know it) dexterously
+seized Kolin, westward in those Elbe parts,--ground that will be
+notable in years coming. Important little feat of Nassau's; of
+which anon. On the other hand, our Magazine at Pardubitz, eastward
+on the Elbe, is not out of danger: Pandours and regulars 2,000 and
+odd, 'sixty of the Pandour kind disguised as peasants leading hay-
+carts,' made an attempt there lately; but were detected by the
+vigilant Colonel, and blown to pieces, in the nick of time, some of
+them actually within the gate. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end
+italic> iii. 65.] Nay, a body of Austrian regulars were in full
+march for Kolin lately, intending to get hold of the Elbe itself at
+that point (midway between Prag and Pardubitz): but the prompt
+General Nassau, as we remarked, had struck in before them; and now
+holds Kolin;--though, for several days, Friedrich could not tell
+what had become of Nassau, owing to the swarms of Pandours.
+
+"Friedrich, standing with his back to Prag, which is fifty miles
+from him, and rather in need of his support than able to give him
+any; and drawing his meal from the uncertain distance, with
+Pandours hovering round,--is in difficult case. While old Traun is
+kept luminous as mid-day; the circumambient atmosphere of Pandours
+is tenebrific to Friedrich, keeps him in perpetual midnight. He has
+to read his position as with flashes of lightning, for most part.
+A heavy-laden, sorely exasperated man; and must keep his haggard
+miseries strictly secret; which I believe he does. Were Valori
+here, it is very possible he might find the countenance FAROUCHE
+again; eyes gloomy, on damp November mornings! Schwerin, in a huff,
+has gone home: Since your Majesty is pleased to prefer his young
+Durchlaucht of Anhalt's advice, what can an elderly servant (not
+without rheumatisms) do other?--'Well!' answers Friedrich, not with
+eyes cheered by the phenomenon. The Elbe-Sazawa tract, even this
+looks as if it would be hard to keep. A world very dark for
+Friedrich, enveloped so by the ill chances and the Pandours.
+But what help?
+
+"From the French Camp far away, there comes, dated 17th October
+(third week of their Siege of Freyburg), by way of help to
+Friedrich, magnanimous promise: 'So soon as this Siege is done,
+which will be speedily, though it is difficult, we propose to send
+fifty battalions and a hundred squadrons,'"--say only 60,000 horse
+and foot (not a hoof or toe of which ever got that length, on
+actually trying it),--"towards Westphalia, to bring the Elector of
+Koln to reason [poor Kaiser's lanky Brother, who cannot stand the
+French procedures, and has lately sold himself, that is sold his
+troops, to England], and keep the King of England and the Dutch in
+check,"--by way of solacement to your Majesty. Will you indeed, you
+magnanimous Allies?--This was picked up by the Pandours; and I know
+not but Friedrich was spared the useless pain of reading it.
+[Orlich, ii. 73.]
+
+"NOVEMBER 1st-9th: FRIEDRICH LOSES SAZAWA-ELBE COUNTRY TOO. On the
+first day of November, here is a lightning-flash which reveals
+strange things to Friedrich. Traun's late manoeuvrings, which have
+been so enigmatic, to right and to left, upon Prag and other
+points, issue now in an attempt towards Pardubitz; which reveals to
+Friedrich the intention Traun has formed, of forcing him to choose
+one of those two places, and let go the other. Formidable, fatal,
+thinks Friedrich; and yet admirable on the part of Traun: 'a design
+beautiful and worthy of admiration.' If we stay near Prag, what
+becomes of our communication with Silesia; what becomes of Silesia
+itself? If we go towards Pardubitz, Prag and Bohmen are lost!
+What to do? 'Despatch reinforcement to Pardubitz; thanks to Nassau,
+the Kolin-Pardubitz road is ours!' That is done, Pardubitz saved
+for the moment. Could we now get to Kuttenberg before the old
+Marshal, his design were overset altogether. Alas, we cannot march
+at once, have to wait a day for the bread. Forward, nevertheless;
+and again forward, and again; three heavy marches in November
+weather: let us make a fourth forced march, start to-morrow before
+dawn,--Kuttenberg above all things! In vain; to-morrow, 4th
+November, there is such a fog, dark as London itself, from six in
+the morning onwards, no starting till noon: and then impossible,
+with all our efforts, to reach Kuttenberg. We have to halt an eight
+miles short of it, in front of Kolin; and pitch tents there. On the
+morrow, 5th November, Traun is found encamped, unattackable,
+between us and our object; sits there, at his ease in a friendly
+Country, with Pandour whirlpools flowing out and in; an irreducible
+case to Friedrich. November 5th, and for three days more,
+Friedrich, to no purpose, tries his utmost;--finds he will have to
+give up the Elbe-Sazawa region, like the others. Monday, November
+9th, Friedrich gathers himself at Kolin; crosses the Elbe by Kolin
+Bridge, that day. Point after point of the game going against him."
+
+Kolin was, of course, attacked, that Monday evening, so soon as the
+main Army crossed: but, so soon as the Army left, General Nassau
+had taken his measures; and, with his great guns and his small,
+handled the Pandours in a way that pleased us. [<italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> iii. 68.] Thursday night following, they
+came back, with regular grenadiers to support; under cloud of
+night, in great force, ruffian Trenck at the head of them:
+a frightful phenomenon to weak nerves. But this also Nassau treated
+in such a fiery fashion that it vanished without return;
+three hundred dead left on the ground, and ruffian Trenck riding
+off with his own crown broken,--beautiful indigo face streaking
+itself into GINGHAM-pattern, for the moment!
+
+Except Pardubitz, where also the due battalions are left, Friedrich
+now holds no post south of the Elbe in this quarter; Elbe-Sazawa
+Tract is gone like the others, to all appearance. And we must now
+say, Silesia or Prag? Prince Leopold, Council-of-War being held on
+the matter, is for keeping hold of Prag: "Pity to lose all the
+excellent siege-artillery we brought thither," says he. True, too
+true; an ill-managed business that of Prag! thinks Friedrich sadly
+to himself: but what is Prag and artillery, compared to Silesia?
+Parthian retreat into Silesia; and let Prag and the artillery go:
+that, to Friedrich, is clearly the sure course. Or perhaps the
+fatal alternative will not actually arrive? So long as Pardubitz
+and Kolin hold; and we have the Elbe for barrier? Truth is, Prince
+Karl has himself written to Court that, having now pushed his Enemy
+fairly over the Elbe, and winter being come with its sleets and
+slushes, ruinous to troops that have been so marched about, the
+Campaign ought to end;--nay, his own young Wife is in perilous
+interesting circumstances, and the poor Prince wishes to be home.
+To which, however, it is again understood, Maria Theresa has
+emphatically answered, "No,--finish first!"
+
+NOVEMBER 9th-19th: WE DEFEND THE ELBE RIVER. Friedrich has posted
+himself on the north shore of the Elbe, from Pardubitz to the other
+side of Kolin; means to defend that side of the River, where go the
+Silesian roads. At Bohdenetz, short way across from Pardubitz, he
+himself is; Prince Leopold is near Kolin: thirty miles of river-
+bank to dispute. The controversy lasts ten days; ends in
+ELBE-TEINITZ, a celebrated "passage," in Books and otherwise.
+Friedrich is in shaggy, intricate country; no want of dingles,
+woods and quagmires; now and then pleasant places too,--here is
+Kladrup for example, where our Father came three hundred miles to
+dine with the Kaiser once. The grooms and colts are all off at
+present; Father and Kaiser are off; and much is changed since then.
+Grim tussle of War now; sleety winter, and the Giant Mountains in
+the distance getting on their white hoods! Friedrich doubtless has
+his thoughts as he rides up and down, in sight of Kladrup, among
+other places, settling many things; but what his thoughts were, he
+is careful not to say except where necessary. Much is to be looked
+after, in this River controversy of thirty miles. Detachments lie,
+at intervals, all the way; and mounted sentries, a sentry every
+five miles, patrol the River-bank; vigilant, we hope, as lynxes.
+Nothing can cross but alarm will be given, and by degrees the whole
+Prussian force be upon it. This is the Circle of Konigsgratz, this
+that now lies to rear; and happily there are a few Hussites in it,
+not utterly indisposed to do a little spying for us, and bring a
+glimmering of intelligence, now and then.
+
+It is now the second week that Frietrich has lain so, with his
+mounted patrols in motion, with his Hussite spies; guarding Argus-
+like this thirty miles of River; and the Austrians attempt nothing,
+or nothing with effect. If the Austrians go home to their winter-
+quarters, he hopes to issue from Kolin again before Spring, and to
+sweep the Elbe-Sazawa Tract clear of them, after all. Maria Theresa
+having answered No, it is likely the Austrians will try to get
+across: Be vigilant therefore, ye mounted sentries. Or will they
+perhaps make an attempt on Prag? Einsiedel, who has no garrison of
+the least adequacy, apprises us That "in all the villages round
+Prag people are busy making ladders,"--what can that mean?
+Friedrich has learned, by intercepted letters, that something great
+is to be done on Wednesday, 18th: he sends Rothenburg with
+reinforcement to Einsiedel, lest a scalade of Prag should be on the
+cards. Rothenburg is right welcome in the lines of Prag, though
+with reinforcement still ineffectual; but it is not Prag that is
+meant, nor is Wednesday the day. Through Wednesday, Friedrich, all
+eye and ear, could observe nothing: much marching to and fro on the
+Austrian side of the River; but apparently it comes to nothing?
+The mounted patrols had better be vigilant, however.
+
+On the morrow, 5 A.M., what is this that is going on? Audible
+booming of cannon, of musketry and battle, echoing through the
+woods, penetrates to Friedrich's quarters at Bohdenetz in the
+Pardubitz region: Attack upon Kolin, Nassau defending himself
+there? Out swift scouts, and see! Many scouts gallop out; but none
+comes back. Friedrich, for hours, has to remain uncertain; can only
+hope Nassau will defend himself. Boom go the distant volleyings;
+no scout comes back. And it is not Nassau or Kolin; it is something
+worse: very glorious for Prussian valor, but ruinous to
+this Campaign.
+
+The Austrians, at 2 o'clock this morning, Austrians and Saxons,
+came in great force, in dead silence, to the south brink of the
+River, opposite a place called Teinitz (Elbe-Teinitz), ten miles
+east of Kolin; that was the fruit of their marching yesterday.
+They sat there forbidden to speak, to smoke tobacco or do anything
+but breathe, till all was ready; till pontoons, cannons had come
+up, and some gleam of dawn had broken. At the first gleam of dawn,
+as they are shoving down their pontoon boats, there comes a
+"WER-DA, Who goes?" from our Prussian patrol across the River.
+Receiving no answer, he fires; and is himself shot down.
+One Wedell, Wedell and Ziethen, who keep watch in this part, start
+instantly at sound of these shots; and make a dreadful day of it
+for these invasive Saxon and Austrian multitudes. Naturally, too,
+they send off scouts, galloping for more help, to the right and to
+the left. But that avails not. Wild doggery of Pandours, it would
+seem, have already swum or waded the River, above Teinitz and
+below:--"Want of vigilance!" barks Friedrich impatiently: but such
+a doggery is difficult to watch with effect. At any rate, to the
+right and to the left, the woods are already beset with Pandours;
+every scout sent out is killed: and to east or to west there comes
+no news but an echoing of musketry, a boom of distant cannon.
+[Orlich, ii. 82-85.] Saxon-Austrian battalions, four or five, with
+unlimited artillery going, VERSUS Wedell's one battalion, with
+musketry and Ziethen's hussars: it is fearful odds. The Prussians
+stand to it like heroes; doggedly, for four hours, continue the
+dispute,--till it is fairly desperate; "two bridges of the enemy's
+now finished;"--whereupon they manoeuvre off, with Parthian or
+Prussian countenance, into the woods, safe, towards Kolin;
+"despatching definite news to Friedrich, which does arrive about
+11 A.M., and sets him at once on new measures."
+
+This is a great feat in the Prussian military annals; for which,
+sad as the news was, Wedell got the name of Leonidas attached to
+him by Friedrich himself. And indeed it is a gallant passage of
+war; "Forcing of the Elbe at Teinitz;" of which I could give two
+Narratives, one from the Prussian, and one from the Saxon side;
+[Seyfarth, <italic> Beylage, <end italic> i. 595-598; <italic>
+Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> ii. 1175-1181.] didactic,
+admonitory to the military mind, nay to the civic reader that has
+sympathy with heroisms, with work done manfully, and terror and
+danger and difficulty well trampled under foot. Leonidas Wedell has
+an admirable silence, too; and Ziethen's lazily hanging under-lip
+is in its old attitude again, now that the spasm is over. "WAS
+THUTS? They are across, without a doubt. We would have helped it,
+and could not. Steady!"--
+
+
+      FRIEDRICH'S RETREAT; ESPECIALLY EINSIEDEL'S FROM PRAG.
+
+Seeing, then, that they are fairly over, Friedrich, with a
+creditable veracity of mind, sees also that the game is done;
+and that same night he begins manoeuvring towards Silesia, lest far
+more be lost by continuing the play. One column, under Leopold the
+Young Dessauer, goes through Glatz, takes the Magazine of Pardubitz
+along with it: good to go in several columns, the enemy will less
+know which to chase. Friedrich, with another column, will wait for
+Nassau about Konigsgratz, then go by the more westerly road,
+through Nachod and the Pass of Braunau. Nassau, who is to get
+across from Kolin, and join us northwards, has due rendezvous
+appointed him in the Konigsgratz region. Einsiedel, in Prag, is to
+spike his guns, since he cannot carry them; blow up his bastions,
+and the like; and get away with all discretion and all diligence,--
+northwestward first, to Leitmeritz, where our magazines are;
+there to leave his heavier goods, and make eastward towards
+Friedland, and across the "Silesian Combs" by what Passes he can.
+Will have a difficult operation; but must stand to it. And speed;
+steady, simultaneous, regular, unresting velocity; that is the word
+for all. And so it is done,--though with difficulty, on the part of
+poor Einsiedel for one. It was Thursday, 19th November, when the
+Austrians got across the Elbe: on Monday, 23d, the Prussian
+rendezvousings are completed; and Friedrich's column, and the Glatz
+one under Leopold, are both on march; infinite baggage-wagons
+groaning orderly along ("sick-wagons well ahead," and the like
+precautions and arrangements), on both these highways for Silesia:
+and before the week ends, Thursday, 26th, even Einsiedel is under
+way. Let us give something of poor Einsiedel, whose disasters made
+considerable noise in the world, that Winter and afterwards.
+
+"The two main columns were not much molested; that which went by
+Glatz, under Leopold, was not pursued at all. On the rear of
+Friedrich's own column, going towards Braunau, all the way to
+Nachod or beyond, there hung the usual doggery of Pandours, which
+required whipping off from time to time; bnt in the defiles and
+difficult places due precaution was taken, and they did little real
+damage. Truchsess von Waldburg [our old friend of the Spartan feat
+near Austerlitz in the MORAVIAN-FORAY time, whom we have known in
+London society as Prussian Envoy in bygone years] was in one of the
+divisions of this column; and one day, at a village where there was
+a little river to cross (river Mietau, Konigsgratz branch of the
+Elbe), got provoked injudiciously into fighting with a body of
+these people. Intent not on whipping them merely, but on whipping
+them to death, Truchsess had already lost some forty men, and the
+business with such crowds of them was getting hot; when, all at
+once a loud squeaking of pigs was heard in the village,"--
+apprehensive swineherd hastily penning his pigs belike, and some
+pig refractory;--"at sound of which, the Pandour multitude suddenly
+pauses, quits fighting, and, struck by a new enthusiasm, rushes
+wholly into the village; leaving Truchsess, in a tragi-comic humor,
+victorious, but half ashamed of himself. [<italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> iii. 73.] In the beginning of December,
+Friedrich's column reached home, by Braunau through the Mountains,
+the same way part of it had come in August; not quite so brilliant
+in equipment now as then.
+
+"It was upon Einsiedel's poor Garrison, leaving Prag in such haste,
+that the real stress of the retreat fell; its difficulties great
+indeed, and its losses great. Einsiedel did what was possible;
+but all things are not possible on a week's warning. He spiked
+great guns, shook endless hundredweights of powder, and 10,000
+stand of arms, into the River; he requisitioned horses, oxen,
+without number; put mines under the bastions, almost none of which
+went off with effect. He kept Prag accurately shut, the Praguers
+accurately in the dark; took his measures prudently; and labored
+night and day. One measure I note of him: stringent Proclamation to
+the inhabitants of Prag, 'Provision yourselves for three months;
+nothing but starvation ahead otherwise.' Alas, we are to stand a
+fourth siege, then? say the Praguers. But where are provisions to
+be had? At such and such places; from the Royal Magazines only, if
+you bring a certificate and ready money! Whereby Einsiedel got
+delivered of his meal-magazine, for one thing. But his difficulties
+otherwise were immense.
+
+"On the Thursday morning, 26th November, 1744, he marched.
+His wagons had begun the night before; and went all night, rumbling
+continuous (Anonymous of Prag [Second "LETTER from a Citizen, &c."
+(date, 27th November, see supra, p. 348), in <italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> ii. 1181-1188.] hearing them well),
+through the Karlthor, northwest gate of Prag, across the Moldau
+Rridge. All night across that bridge,--Leitmeritz road, great road
+to the northwest:--followed finally by the march of horse and foot.
+But news had already fled abroad. Five hundred Pandours were in the
+City, backed by the Butchers' lads and other riotous GESINDEL,
+before the rear-guard got away. Sad tugging and wriggling in
+consequence, much firing from windows, and uproarious chaos;--so
+that Rothenburg had at last to remount a couple of guns, and blow
+it off with case-shot. A drilled Prussian rear-guard struggling,
+with stern composure, through a real bit of burning chaos.
+With effect, though not without difficulty. Here is the scene on
+the Noldau Bridge, and past that high Hradschin [Old Palace of the
+Bohemian Kings (pronounce RADsheen); one of the steepest Royal
+Sites in the world.] mass of buildings; all Prag, not the Hradschin
+only, struggling to give us fatal farewell if it durst. River is
+covered with Pandours firing out of boats; Bridge encumbered to
+impassability by forsaken wagons, the drivers of which had cut
+traces and run; shot comes overhead from the Hradschin on our left,
+much shot, infinite tumult all round; thoroughfare impossible for
+two-wheeled vehicle, or men in rank. 'Halt!' cries Colonel Brandes,
+who has charge of the thing; divides them in three: 'First one
+party, deal with these river-boats, that Pandour doggery;
+second party, pull these stray wagons to right and left, making the
+way clear; third party, drag our own wagons forward, shoulder to
+shaft, and yoke them out of shot-range;--you, Captain Carlowitz,'
+and calls twenty volunteers to go with Carlowitz, and drag their
+own cannon, 'step you forward, keep the gate of that Hradschin till
+we all pass!' In this manner, rapid, hard of stroke, clear-headed
+and with stern regularity, drilled talent gets the burning Nessus'-
+shirt wriggled off; and tramps successfully forth with its
+baggages. About 11 A.M., this rearguard of Brandes's did; should
+have been at seven,--right well that it could be at all.
+
+"Einsiedel, after this, got tolerably well to Leitmeritz; left his
+heavy baggage there; then turned at an acute angle right eastward,
+towards the Silesian Combs, as ordered: still a good seventy miles
+to do, and the weather getting snowy and the days towards their
+shortest. Worse still; old Weissenfels, now in Prag with his
+Saxons, is aware that Einsiedel, before ending, will touch on a
+wild high-lying corner of the Lausitz which is Saxon Country;
+and thitherward Weissenfels has despatched Chevalier de Saxe (in
+plenty of time, November 29th), with horse and foot, to waylay
+Einsiedel, and block the entrance of the Silesian Mountains for
+him. Whereupon, in the latter end of his long march, and almost
+within sight of home, ensues the hardest brush of all for
+Einsiedel. And, in the desolation of that rugged Hill country of
+the Lausitz, 'HOCHWALD (Upper Weld),' twenty or more miles from 
+Bohemian Friedland, from his entrance on the Mountain Barrier and
+Silesian Combs, there are scenes--which gave rise to a Court-
+Martial before long. For unexpectedly, on the winter afternoon
+(December 9th), Einsiedel, struggling among the snows and pathless
+Hills, comes upon Chevalier de Saxe and his Saxon Detachment,--
+intrenched with trees, snow-redoubts, and a hollow bog dividing us;
+plainly unassailable;--and stands there, without covering, without
+'food, fire, or salt,' says one Eye-witness, 'for the space of
+fourteen hours.' Gazing gloomily into it, exchanging a few shots,
+uncertain what more to do; the much-dubitating Einsiedel. 'At which
+the men were so disgusted and enraged, they deserted [the foreign
+part of them, I fancy] in groups at a time,' says the above
+Eye-witness. Not to think what became of the equipments, baggage-
+wagons, sick-wagons:--too evident Einsiedel's loss, in all kinds,
+was very considerable. Nassau, despatched by Leopold out of Glatz,
+from the other side of the Combs, is marching to help Einsiedel;--
+who knows, at this moment, where or whitherward? For the peasants
+are all against us; our very guides desert, and become spies.
+'Push to the left, over the Hochwald top, must not we?' thinks
+Einsiedel: 'that is Lausitz, a Saxon Country; and Saxony, though
+the Saxons stand intrenched here, with the knife at our throat, are
+not at war with us, oh no, only allies of her Majesty of Hungary,
+and neutral otherwise!' And here, it is too clear, the Chevalier de
+Saxe stands intrenched behind his trees and snow; and it is the
+fourteenth hour, men deserting by the hundred, without fire and
+without salt; and Nassau is coming,--God knows by what road!
+
+"Einsiedel pushes to the left, the Hochwald way; finds, in the
+Hochwald too, a Saxon Commandant waiting him, with arms strictly
+shouldered. 'And we cannot pass through this moor skirt of Lausitz,
+say you, then?' 'Unarmed, yes; your muskets can come in wagons
+after you,' replies the Saxon Commandant of Lausitz.
+'Thousand thanks, Herr Commandant; but we will not give you all
+that trouble,' answer Einsiedel and his Prussians; 'and march on,
+overwhelming him with politenesses,' says Friedrich;--the approach
+of Nassau, above all, being a stringent civility. Of course,
+despatch is very requisite to Einsiedel; the Chevalier, with his
+force, being still within hail. The Prussians march all night, with
+pitch-links flaring,--nights (I think) of the 13th-15th December,
+1744, up among the highlands there, rugged buttresses of the
+Silesian Combs: a sight enough to astonish Rubezahl, if he happened
+to be out! As good chance would have it, Nassau and Einsiedel, by
+preconcert, partly by lucky guess of their own, were hurrying by
+the same road: three heaven-rending cheers (December 16th) when we
+get sight of Nassau; and find that here is land! December 16th, we
+are across,--by Ruckersdorf, not far from Friedland (Bohmisch
+Friedland, not the Silesian town of that name, once Wallenstein's);
+--and rejoice now to look back on labor done." [<italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> ii. 1181-1190, 1191-1194; <italic>
+Feldzuge, <end italic> i. 278-280.]
+
+These were intricate strange scenes, much talked of at the time:
+Rothenburg, ugly Walrave, Hacke, and other known figures, concerned
+in them. Scenes in which Friedrich is not well informed; who much
+blames Einsiedel, as he is apt to do the unsuccessful. Accounts
+exist, both from the Prussian and from the Saxon side, decipherable
+with industry; not now worth deciphering to English readers.
+Only that final scene of the pitch-links, the night before meeting
+with Nassau, dwells voluntarily in one's memory. And is the
+farewell of Einsiedel withal. Friedrich blames him to the last:
+though a Court-Martial had sat on his case, some months after, and
+honorably acquitted him. Good solid, silent Einsiedel;--and in some
+months more, he went to a still higher court, got still stricter
+justice: I do not hear expressly that it was the winter marches, or
+strain of mind; but he died in 1745; and that flare of pitch-links
+in Rubezahl's country is the last scene of him to us,--and the end
+of Friedrich's unfortunate First Expedition in the Second
+Silesian War.
+
+"Foiled, ultimately, then, on every point; a totally ill-ordered
+game on our part! Evidently we, for our part, have been altogether
+in the wrong, in various essential particulars. Amendment, that and
+no other, is the word now. Let us take the scathe and the scorn
+candidly home to us;--and try to prepare for doing better.
+The world will crow over us. Well, the world knows little about it;
+the world, if it did know, would be partly in the right!"--Wise is
+he who, when beaten, learns the reasons of it, and alters these.
+This wisdom, it must be owned, is Friedrich's; and much
+distinguishes him among generals and men. Veracity of mind, as I
+say, loyal eyesight superior to sophistries; noble incapacity of
+self-delusion, the root of all good qualities in man. His epilogue
+to this Campaign is remarkable;--too long for quoting here, except
+the first word of it and the last:--
+
+"No General committed more faults than did the King in this
+Campaign. ... The conduct of M. de Traun is a model of perfection,
+which every soldier that loves his business ought to study, and try
+to imitate, if he have the talent. The king has himself admitted
+that he regarded this Campaign as his school in the Art of War, and
+M. de Traun as his teacher." But what shall we say? "Bad is often
+better for Princes than good;--and instead of intoxicating them
+with presumption, renders them circumspect and modest."
+[<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> iii.76, 77.] Let us still hope!--
+
+
+
+                           Chapter V.
+
+          FRIEDRICH, UNDER DIFFICULTIES, PREPARES FOR A
+                          NEW CAMPAIGN.
+
+To the Court of Vienna, especially to the Hungarian Majesty, this
+wonderful reconquest of Bohemia, without battle fought,--or any
+cause assignable but Traun's excellent manoeuvring and Friedrich's
+imprudences and trust in the French,--was a thing of heavenly
+miracle; blessed omen that Providence had vouchsafed to her prayers
+the recovery of Silesia itself. All the world was crowing over
+Friedrich: but her Majesty of Hungary's views had risen to a
+clearly higher pitch of exultation and triumphant hope, terrestrial
+and celestial, than any other living person's. "Silesia back
+again," that was now the hope and resolution of her Majesty's high
+heart: "My wicked neighbor shall be driven out, and smart dear for
+the ill he has done; Heaven so wills it!" "Very little uplifts the
+Austrians," says Valori; which is true, under such a Queen;
+"and yet there is nothing that can crush them altogether down,"
+adds he.
+
+No sooner is Bohemia cleared of Friedrich, than Maria, winter as it
+is, orders that there be, through the Giant-Mountains, vigorous
+assault upon Silesia. Highland snows and ices, what are these to
+Pandour people, who, at their first entrance on the scene of
+History, "crossed the Palus-Maeotis itself [Father of Quagmires, so
+to speak] in a frozen state," and were sufficiently accommodated
+each in his own dirty sheepskin? "Prosecute the King of Prussia,"
+ordered she; "take your winter-quarters in Silesia!"--and Traun, in
+spite of the advanced season, and prior labors and hardships, had
+to try, from the southwestern Bohemian side, what he could do;
+while a new Insurrection, coming through the Jablunka, spread
+itself over the southeast and east. Seriously invasive multitudes;
+which were an unpleasant surprise to Friedrich; and did, as we
+shall see, require to be smitten back again, and re-smitten;
+making a very troublesome winter to the Prussians and themselves;
+but by no means getting winter-quarters, as they once hoped.
+
+In a like sense, Maria Theresa had already (December 2d) sent forth
+her Manifesto or Patent, solemnly apprising her ever-faithful
+Silesian Populations, "That the Treaty of Breslau, not by her
+fault, is broken; palpably a Treaty no longer. That they,
+accordingly, are absolved from all oaths and allegiance to the King
+of Prussia; and shall hold themselves in readiness to swear anew to
+her Majesty, which will be a great comfort to such faithful
+creatures; suffering, as her Majesty explains to them that they
+have done, under Prussian tyranny for these two years past.
+Immediate dead-lift effort there shall be; that is certain:
+and 'the Almighty God assisting, who does not leave such injustices
+unpunished, We have the fixed Christian hope, Omnipotence blessing
+our arms, of almost immediately (EHESTENS) delivering you from this
+temporary Bondage (BISHERIGEN JOCH).' You can pray, in the mean
+while, for the success of her Majesty's arms; good fighting, aided
+by prayer, in a Cause clearly Heaven's, will now, to appearance,
+bring matters swiftly round again, to the astonishment and
+confusion of bad men." [In <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
+ii. 1194-1198; Ib. 1201-1206, is Friedrich's Answer, "19th
+December, 1744."]
+
+These are her Majesty's views; intensely true, I doubt not, to her
+devout heart. Robinson and the English seem not to be enthusiastic
+in that direction; as indeed how can they? They would fain be
+tender of Silesia, which they have guaranteed; fain, now and
+afterwards, restrain her Majesty from driving at such a pace down
+hill: but the declivity is so encouraging, her Majesty is not to be
+restrained, and goes faster and faster for the time being.
+And indeed, under less devout forms, the general impression, among
+Pragmatic people, Saxon, Austrian, British even, was, That
+Friedrich had pretty much ruined himself, and deserved to do so;
+that this of his being mere "Auxiliary" to a Kaiser in distress was
+an untenable pretext, now justly fallen bankrupt upon him.
+The evident fact, That he had by his "Frankfurt Union," and
+struggles about "union," reopened the door for French tribulations
+and rough-ridings in the Reich, was universally distasteful;
+all chance of a "general union of German Princes, in aid of their
+Kaiser," was extinct for the present.
+
+Friedrich's rapidity had served him ill with the Public, in this as
+in some other instances! Friedrich, contemplating his situation,
+not self-delusively, but with the candor of real remorse, was by no
+means yet aware how very bad it was. For six months coming, partly
+as existing facts better disclosed themselves, as France, Saxony
+and others showed what spirit they were of; partly as new sinister
+events and facts arrived one after the other,--his outlook
+continued to darken and darken, till it had become very dark
+indeed. There is perennially the great comfort, immense if you can
+manage it, of making front against misfortune; of looking it
+frankly in the face, and doing with a resolution, hour by hour,
+your own utmost against it. Friedrich never lacked that comfort;
+and was not heard complaining. But from December 13th, 1744, when
+he hastened home to Berlin, under such aspects, till June 4th,
+1745, when aspects suddenly changed, are probably the worst six
+months Friedrich had yet had in the world. During which, his
+affairs all threatening to break down about him, he himself,
+behooving to stand firm if the worst was not to realize itself, had
+to draw largely on what silent courage, or private inexpugnability
+of mind, was in him,--a larger instalment of that royal quality (as
+I compute) than the Fates had ever hitherto demanded of him.
+Ever hitherto; though perhaps nothing like the largest of all,
+which they had upon their Books for him, at a farther stage!
+As will be seen. For he was greatly drawn upon in that way, in his
+time. And he paid always; no man in his Century so well; few men,
+in any Century, better. As perhaps readers may be led to guess or
+acknowledge, on surveying and considering. To see, and
+sympathetically recognize, cannot be expected of modern readers,
+in the present great distance, and changed conditions of men
+and things.
+
+Friedrich, after despatching Nassau to cut out Einsiedel, had
+delivered the Silesian Army to the Old Dessauer, who is to command
+in chief during Winter; and had then hastened to Berlin,--many
+things there urgently requiring his presence; preparations,
+reparations, not to speak of diplomacies, and what was the heaviest
+item of all, new finance for the coming exertions. In Schweidnitz,
+on Leopold's appearance, there had been an interview, due
+consultings, orderings; which done, Friedrich at once took the
+road; and was at Berlin, Monday, December 14th,--precisely in the
+time while Nassau and Einsiedel were marching with torchlights in
+Rubezahl's Country, and near ending their difficult enterprise
+better or worse.
+
+Friedrich, fastening eagerly on Home business, is astonished and
+provoked to learn that the Austrians, not content with pushing him
+out of Bohmen, are themselves pushing into Schlesien,--so Old
+Leopold reports, with increasing emphasis day by day; to whom
+Friedrich sends impatient order: Hurl them out again; gather what
+force you need, ten thousand, or were it twenty or thirty thousand,
+and be immediate about it; "I will as soon be pitched
+(HERAUSGESCHMISSEN) out of the Mark of Brandenburg as out of
+Schlesien:" no delay, I tell you! And as the Old Dessauer still
+explains that the ten or fifteen thousand he needs are actually
+assembling, and cannot be got on march quite in a moment, Friedrich
+dashes away his incipient Berlin Operations; will go himself and do
+it. Haggle no more, you tedious Old Dessauer:--
+
+BERLIN, "19th DECEMBER," 1744. "On the 21st [Monday, one week after
+my arriving], I leave Berlin, and mean to be at Neisse on the 24th
+at latest. Your Serenity will in the interim make out the Order-of-
+Battle [which is also Order-of-March] for what regiments are come
+in. For I will, on the 25th, without delay, cross the Neisse, and
+attack those people, cost what it may,--to chase them out of
+Schlesien and Glatz, and follow them so far as possible.
+Your Serenity will therefore take your measures, and provide
+everything, so far as in this short time you can, that the project
+may be executable the moment I arrive." [Friedrich to the Old
+Dessauer (<italic> Orlich, <end italic> ii. 356).]
+
+And rushed off accordingly, in a somewhat flamy humor; but at
+Schweidnitz, where the Old Dessauer met him again, became convinced
+that the matter was weightier than he thought; not one of
+Tolpatchery alone, but had Traun himself in it. Upon which
+Friedrich candidly drew bridle; hastened back, and, with a loss of
+four days, was at his Potsdam Affairs again. To which he stuck
+henceforth, ardently, and I think rather with increase of gloom,
+though without spurt of impatience farther, for three months to
+come. Before his return,--nay, had he known, it was the night
+before he went away,--a strange little thing had happened in the
+opposite or Western parts: surprising accident to Marechal de
+Belleisle; which now lies waiting his immediate consideration.
+But let us finish Silesia first.
+
+
+   OLD DESSAUER REPELS THE SILESIAN INVASION (Winter, 1744-45).
+
+"This Silesian Affair includes due inroad of Pandours; or indeed
+two inroads, southwest and southeast; and in the southwest, or
+Traun quarter, regulars are the main element of it. Traun, 20,000
+strong, PLUS stormy-enough Pandour ACCOMPANIMENT, is by this time
+through into Glatz; in three columns;--is master of all Glatz,
+except the Rock-Fortress itself; and has spread himself, right and
+left, along the Neisse River, and from the southwest northwards, in
+a skilful and dangerous manner. In concert with whom, far to the
+east, are Pandour whirlwinds on their own footing (brand-new
+'Insurrection' of them, got thus far) starting from Olmutz and
+Brunn; scouring that eastern country, as far as Namslau northward
+[a place we were at the taking of, in old Brieg times]; much more,
+infesting the Mountains of the South. A rather serious thing;
+with Traun for general manager of it."
+
+With Traun, we say: poor Prince Karl is off, weeks ago; on the
+saddest of errands. His beautiful young Wife,--Hungarian Majesty's
+one Sister, Vice-Regents of the Netherlands he and she, conspicuous
+among the bright couples of the world,--she had a bad lying-in
+(child still-born), while those grand Moldau Operations went on;
+has been ill, poor lady, ever since; and, at Brussels, on December
+16th, she herself lies dead, Prince Karl weeping over her and the
+days that will not return. Prince Karl's felicities, private and
+public, had been at their zenith lately, which was very high
+indeed; but go on declining from this day. Never more the Happiest
+of Husbands (did not wed again at all); still less the Greatest of
+Captains, equal or superior to Caesar in the Gazetteer judgment,
+with distracted EULOGIES, BIOGRAPHIES and such like filling the
+air: before long, a War-Captain of quite moderate renown; which we
+shall see sink gradually into no renown at all, and even (unjustly)
+into MINUS quantities, before all end. A mad world, my masters!
+
+"Between Traun on the southwest hand, and his Pandours on the
+southeast, the small Prussian posts have all been driven in upon
+Troppau-Jagerndorf region; more and more narrowed there;--and, in
+fine (two days before this new Interview of Leopold and the
+impatient King at Schweidnitz), have had to quit the Troppau-
+Jagerndorf position; to quit the Hills altogether, and are now in
+full march towards Brieg. Of which march I should say nothing, were
+it not that Marwitz, Father of Wilhelmina's giggling Marmitzes,
+commanded;--and came by his death in the course of it; though our
+Wilhelmina is not now there, pen in hand, to tell us what the
+effects at Baireuth were. Marwitz had been left for dead on the
+Field of Mollwitz; lay so all night, but was nursed to some kind of
+strength again by those giggling young women; and came back to
+Schlesien, to posts of chief trust, for the last year or two,--was
+guarding the Mountains, and even invading Mahren, during the late
+Campaign;--but saw himself reduced latterly to Jagerndorf and
+Troppau; and had even to retreat out of these. And in the whirlpool
+of hurries thereupon,--how is not very clear; by apoplexy, say
+some; by accidental pistol from a servant of his own; in actual
+skirmish with Pandours,--too certainly, one way or the other, on
+December 23d (just during that second Interview at Schweidnitz),
+brave old Marwitz did suddenly sink dead, and is ended.
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, ii. 1201.] Even so, ye poor giggling
+creatures, and your loud weeping will not mend it at all!
+
+"Friedrich, looking candidly into these phenomena, could not but
+see that: what with Tolpatcheries, what with Traun's 20,000
+regulars, and the whole Army at their back, his Silesian Border is
+girt in by a very considerable inroad of Austrians,-- huge Chain of
+them, in horse-shoe form, 300 miles long, pressing in; from beyond
+Glatz and Landshut, round by the southern Mountains, and up
+eastward again as far as Namslau, nothing but war whirlwinds in
+regular or irregular form, in the centre of them Traun;--and that
+the Old Dessauer really must have time to gird himself for dealing
+with Traun and them.
+
+"It was not till January 9th that Old Leopold, 25,000 strong,
+equipped to his mind, which was a difficult matter, crossed the
+Neisse River; and marched direct upon Traun, with Ziethen charging
+ahead. Actually marched; after which the main wrestle was done in a
+week. January 16th, Old Leopold got to Jagerndorf; found the actual
+Traun concentrated at Jagerndorf; and drew up, to be ready for
+assault to-morrow morning,--had not Traun, candidly computing,
+judged it better to glide wholly away in the night-time, diligently
+towards Mahren, breaking the bridges behind him. And so, in effect,
+to give up the Silesian Invasion for this time. After which, though
+there remained a good deal of rough tussling with Pandour details,
+and some rugged exploits of fight, there is--except that of Lehwald
+in clearing of Glatz--nothing farther that we can afford to speak
+of. Lehwald's exploit, Lehwald VERSUS Wallis (same Wallis who
+defended Glogau long since), which came to be talked of, and got
+name and date, 'Action of Habelschwert, February 14th,' something
+almost like a pitched fight on the small scale, is to the
+following effect:--
+
+"PLOMNITZ, NEAR HABELSCHWERT, 14th FEBRUARY, 1745. Old General
+Lehwald, marching in the hollow ground near Habelschwert (hollow of
+the young Neisse River, twenty miles south of Glatz), with intent
+to cut that Country free; the Enemy, whom he is in search of,
+appears in great force,--posted on the uphill ground ahead, half-
+frozen difficult stream in front of them, cannon on flank, Pandour
+multitude in woods; all things betokening inexpugnability on the
+part of the Enemy. So that Lehwald has to take his measures; study
+well where the vital point is, the root of that extensive Austrian
+junglery, and cut in upon the same. By considerable fire of effort,
+the uphill ground, half-frozen stream, sylvan Pandours, cannon-
+batteries, and what inexpugnabilities there may be, are subdued;
+Austrian wide junglery, the root of it slit asunder rolls homeward
+simultaneously, not too fast: nay it halted, and re-ranked itself
+twice over, finding woods and quaggy runlets to its mind; but was
+always slit out again, disrooted, and finally tumbled home, having
+had enough. 'Wenzel Wallis,' Friedrich asserts with due scorn, 'was
+all this while in a Chapel; praying ardently,' to St. Vitus, or one
+knows not whom; 'without effect; till they shouted to him, "Beaten,
+Sir! Off, or you are lost!" upon which he sprang to saddle, and
+spurred with both heels (PIQUA DES DEUX).' [<italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> iii. 79. 80.]  That was the feat of Lehwald,
+clearing the Glatz Country with one good cut: a skilful Captain;
+now getting decidedly oldish, close on sixty; whom we shall meet
+again a dozen years hence, still in harness.
+
+"The old Serene Highness himself, face the color of gun-powder, and
+bluer in the winter frost, went rushing far and wide in an open
+vehicle, which he called his 'cart;' pushing out detachments,
+supervising everything; wheeling hither and thither as needful;
+sweeping out the Pandour world, and keeping it out: not much of
+fighting needed, but 'a great deal of marching [murmurs Friedrich],
+which in winter is as bad, and wears down the force of the
+battalions.' Of all which we give no detail: sufficient to fancy,
+in this manner, the Old Dessauer flapping his wide military wings
+in the faces of the Pandour hordes, with here and there a hard
+twitch from beak or claws; tolerably keeping down the Pandour
+interest all Winter. His sons, Leopold and Dietrich, were under
+him, occasionally beside him; the Junior Leopold so worn down with
+feverish gout he could hardly sit on horseback at all, while old
+Papa went tearing about in his cart at that rate."
+[<italic> Unternehmung in Ober-Schlesien, unter dem Fursten Leopold
+von Anhalt-Dessau, im Januar und Februar, <end italic> 1745
+(Seyfarth, <italic> Beylage, <end italic> i. 141-152); Stenzel, iv.
+232; &c.]
+
+There was, on the 21st of February, TE-DEUM sung in the churches of
+Berlin "for the Deliverance of Silesia from Invasion." Not that
+even yet the Pandours would be quite quiet, or allow Old Leopold to
+quit his cart; far from it. And they returned in such increased and
+tempestuous state, as will again require mention, with the earliest
+Spring:--precursors to a second, far more serious and deadly
+"Invasion of Silesia;" for which it hangs yet on the balance
+whether there will be a TE-DEUM or a MISERERE to sing!
+
+Hungarian Majesty, disappointed of Silesia,--which, it seems, is
+not to be had "all at once (EHESTENS)," in the form of miracle,--
+makes amends by a rush upon Seckendorf and Bavaria; attacks
+Seckendorf furiously ("Bathyani pressing up the Donau Valley, with
+Browne on one hand, and Barenklau on the other") in midwinter;
+and makes a terrible hand of him; reducing his "Reconquest of
+Bavaria" to nothing again, nay to less. Of which in due time.
+
+
+ THE FRENCH FULLY INTEND TO BEHAVE BETTER NEXT SEASON TO FRIEDRICH 
+ AND THEIR GERMAN ALLIES;--BUT ARE PREVENTED BY VARIOUS ACCIDENTS
+       (November, 1744-April, 1745; April-August, 1745).
+
+It is not divine miracle, Friedrich knows well, that has lost him
+his late Bohemian Conquests without battle fought: it was rash
+choosing of a plan inexecutable without French co-operation,--
+culpable blindness to the chance that France would break its
+promises, and not co-operate. Had your Majesty forgotten the Joint-
+Stock Principle, then? His Majesty has sorrowful cause to remember
+it, from this time, on a still larger scale!
+
+Reflections, indignant or exculpatory, on the conduct of the French
+in this Business are useless to Friedrich, and to us. The
+performance, on their part, has been nearly the worst;--though
+their intentions, while the Austrian Dragon had them by the throat,
+were doubtless enthusiastically good! But, the big Austrian Dragon
+being jerked away from Elsass, by Friedrich's treading on his tail,
+500 miles off, they were charmed, quite into new enthusiasm, to be
+rid of said Dragon: and, instead of chasing HIM according to
+bargain, took to destroying his DEN, that he might be harmless
+thenceforth. Freyburg is a captured Town, to the joy and glory of
+admiring France; and Friedrich's Campaign has gone the road we see!
+The Freyburg Illuminations having burnt out, there might rise, in
+the triumphant mind, some thought of Friedrich again,--perhaps
+almost of a remorseful nature? Certain it is, the French intentions
+are now again magnanimous, more so than ever; coupled now with some
+attempts at fulfilment, too; which obliges us to mention them here.
+They were still a matter of important hope to Friedrich; hope which
+did not quite go out till August coming. Though, alas, it did then
+go out, in gusts of indignation on Friedrich's part! And as the
+whole of these magnanimous French intentions, latter like former,
+again came to zero, we are interested only in rendering them
+conceivable to readers for Friedrich's sake,--with the more
+brevity, the better for everybody. Two grand French Attempts there
+were; listen, on the threshold, a little:--
+
+... "It is certain the French intend gloriously; regardless of
+expense. They are dismantling Freyburg, to render it harmless
+henceforth. But, withal, in answer to the poor Kaiser's shrieks,
+they have sent Segur [our old Linz friend], with 12,000, to assist
+Seckendorf; 'the bravest troops in the world,'"--who did bravely
+take one beating (at Pfaffenhofen, as will be seen), and go home
+again. ("They have Coigny guarding those fine Brisgau Conquests.
+And are furthermore diplomatizing diligently, not to say
+truculently, in the Rhine Countries; bullying poor little fat
+Kur-Trier, lean Kur-Koln and others, 'To join the Frankfurt Union'
+(not one of whom would, under menace),--though 'it is the clear
+duty of all Reich's-Princes with a Kaiser under oppression:'--and
+have marched Maillebois, directly after Freyburg, into the Middle-
+Rhine Countries, to Koln Country, to Mainz Country, and to and
+fro, in support of said compulsory diplomacies;--but without the
+least effect."
+
+To the "Middle-Rhine Countries," observe, and under Maillebois,
+then under Conti, little matter under whom: only let readers
+recollect the name of it;--for it is the FIRST of the French
+Attempts to do something of a joint-stock nature; something for
+self AND Allies, instead of for self only. It caused great alarm in
+those months, to Britannic George and others; and brought out poor
+Duc d'Ahremberg with portions (no English included) of the poor
+Pragmatic Army, to go marching about in the winter slushes, instead
+of resting in bed, [Adelung, iv. 276, 420 ("December, 1744-June,
+1745").]--and is indeed a very loud business in the old Gazettes
+and books, till August coming. Business which almost broke poor
+D'Ahremberg's heart, he says, "till once I got out of it" (was
+TURNED out, in fact): Business of Pragmatic Army, under
+D'Ahremberg, VERSUS Middle-Rhine Army under Maillebois, under
+Conti; Business now wholly of Zero VERSUS Zero to us,--except for a
+few dates and reflex glimmerings upon King Friedrich. Result
+otherwise-- We shall see the Result!
+
+"Attempt SECOND was still more important to Friedrich; being
+directed upon the Kaiser and Bavaria. Belleisle is to go thither
+and take survey; Belleisle thither first: you may judge if the
+intention is sincere! Valori is quite eloquent upon it.
+Directly after Freyburg, says he, Sechelles, that first of
+Commissaries, was sent to Munchen. Sechelles cleared up the chaos
+of Accounts; which King Louis then instantly paid. 'Your Imperial
+Majesty shall have Magazines also,' said Louis, regardless of
+expense; 'and your Army, with auxiliaries (Segur and 25,000 of them
+French), shall be raised to 60,000.' Belleisle then came: 'We will
+have Ingolstadt, the first thing, in Spring.' Alas, Belleisle had
+his Accident in the Harz; and all went aback, from that time."
+[Valori, i. 322-329.] Aback, too indisputably, all!--"And
+Belleisle's Accident?" Patience, readers.
+
+"The truth is, Attempt SECOND, and chief, broke down at once
+[Bathyani beating it to pieces, as will be seen],--the ruins of it
+painfully reacting on Attempt FIRST; which had the like fate some
+months later;--and there was no THIRD made. And, in fact, from the
+date of that latter down-break, August, or end of July, 1745 [and
+quite especially from "September 13th," by which time several
+irrevocable things had happened, which we shall hear of], the
+French withdrew altogether out of German entanglements;
+and concentrated themselves upon the Netherlands, there to demolish
+his Britannic Majesty, as the likelier enterprise. This was a
+course to which, ever since the Exit of Broglio and the Oriflamme,
+they had been more and more tending and inclining, 'Nothing for us
+but loss on loss, to be had in Germany!' and so they at last
+frankly gave up that bad Country. They fought well in the
+Netherlands, with great splendor of success, under Saxe VERSUS
+Cumberland and Company. They did also some successful work in
+Italy;--and left Friedrich to bear the brunt in Germany; too glad
+if he or another were there to take Germany off their hand!
+Friedrich's feelings on his arriving at this consummation, and
+during his gradual advance towards it, which was pretty steady all
+along from those first 'drenched-hen (POULES MOUILLEES)'
+procedures, were amply known to Excellency Valori, and may be
+conceived by readers,"--who are slightly interested in the dates of
+them at farthest. And now for the Belleisle Accident, with these
+faint preliminary lights.
+
+
+          STRANGE ACCIDENT TO MARECHAL DE BELLEISLE IN THE
+                HARZ MOUNTAINS (20th December, 1744).
+
+Siege of Freyburg being completed, and the River and most other
+things (except always the bastions, which we blow up) being let
+into their old channels there, Marechal de Belleisle, who is to
+have a chief management henceforth,--the Most Christian King
+recognizing him again as his ablest man in war or peace,--sets
+forth on a long tour of supervision, of diplomacy and general
+arrangement, to prepare matters for the next Campaign. Need enough
+of a Belleisle: what a business we have made of it, since Friedrich
+trod on the serpent's tail for us.! Nothing but our own Freyburg to
+show for ourselves; elsewhere, mere down-rush of everything
+whitherward it liked;--and King Friedrich got into such a humor!
+Friedrich must be put in tune again; something real and good to be
+agreed on at Berlin: let that be the last thing, crown of the
+whole. The first thing is, look into Bavaria a little; and how the
+Kaiser, poor gentleman, in want of all requisites but good-will,
+can be put into something of fighting posture.
+
+"In the end of November, Marechal Duc de Belleisle, with his
+Brother the Chevalier (now properly the Count, there having been
+promotions), and a great retinue more, alights at Munchen;
+holds counsel with the poor Kaiser for certain days:--Money wanted;
+many things wanted; and all things, we need not doubt, much fallen
+out of square. 'Those Seckendorf troops in their winter-quarters,'
+say our French Inspectors and Segur people, as usual, 'do but look
+on it, your Excellency! Scattered, along the valleys, into the very
+edge of Austria; Austria will swallow them, the first thing, next
+year; they will never rendezvous again except in the Austrian
+prisons. Surely, Monseigneur, only a man ignorant of war, or with
+treasonous intention [or ill-off for victuals],--could post troops
+in that way? Seckendorf is not ignorant of war!' say they.
+[Valori, i. 206.] For, in fact, suspicion runs high; and there is
+no end to the accusations just and unjust; and Seckendorf is as ill
+treated as any of us could wish. Poor old soul. Probably nobody in
+all the Earth, but his old Wife in the Schloss of Altenburg, has
+any pity for him,--if even she, which I hope. He has fought and
+diplomatized and intrigued in many countries, very much; and in his
+old days is hard bested. Monseigueur, whose part is rather that of
+Jove the Cloud-compeller, is studious to be himself noiseless amid
+this noise; and makes no alteration in the Seckendorf troops;
+but it is certain he meant to do it, thinks Valori."
+
+And indeed Seckendorf, tired of the Bavarian bed-of-roses, had 
+privately fixed with himself to quit the same;--and does so,
+inexorable to the very Kaiser, on New-Year arriving.
+[<italic> Seckendorfs Leben, <end italic> p. 365.] Succeeded by
+Thorring (our old friend DRUM Thorring), if that be an improvement.
+Marechal de Belleisle has still a long journey ahead, and
+infinitely harder problems than these,--assuagement of the King of
+Prussia, for example. Let us follow his remarkable steps.
+
+"WEDNESDAY, 9th DECEMBER, 1744, the Marechal leaves Munchen,
+northwards through OEttingen and the Bamberg-Anspach regions
+towards Cassel;--journey of some three hundred and fifty miles:
+with a great retinue of his own; with an escort of two hundred
+horse from the Kaiser; these latter to prevent any outfall or
+insult in the Ingolstadt quarter, where the Austrians have a
+garrison, not at all very tightly blocked by the Seckendorf people
+thereabouts. No insult or outfall occurring, the Marechal dismisses
+his escort at OEttingen; fares forward in his twenty coaches and
+fourgons, some score or so of vehicles:--mere neutral Imperial
+Countries henceforth, where the Kaiser's Agent, as Marechal de
+Belleisle can style himself, and Titular Prince of the German
+Empire withal, has only to pay his way. By Donauworth, by
+OEttingen; over the Donau acclivities, then down the pleasant
+Valley of the Mayn. [See REVIEW OF THE CASE OF MARSHAL BELLEISLE
+(or Abstract of it, <italic> Gentleman's Magazine, <end italic>
+1745, pp. 366-373); &c. &c.]
+
+"SUNDAY, 13th DECEMBER, Marechal de Belleisle arrives at Hanau
+[where we have seen Conferences held before now, and Carteret,
+Prince Karl and great George our King very busy], there to confer
+with Marshals Coigny, Maillebois and other high men, Commanders in
+those Rhine parts. Who all come accordingly, except Marechal
+Maillebois, who is sorry that he absolutely cannot; but will surely
+do himself the honor as Monseigneur returns." As Monseigneur
+returns! "And so, on Monday, 14th, Monseigneur starts for Cassel;
+say a hundred miles right north; where we shall meet Prince Wilhelm
+of Hessen-Cassel, a zealous Ally; inform him how his Troops, under
+Seckendorf, are posted [at Vilshofen yonder; hiding how perilous
+their post is, or promising alterations]; perhaps rest a day or
+two, consulting as to the common weal: How the King of Prussia
+takes our treatment of him? How to smooth the King of Prussia, and
+turn him to harmony again? We are approaching the true nodus of our
+business, difficulty of difficulties; and Wilhelm, the wise
+Landgraf, may afford a hint or two. Thus travels magnanimous
+Belleisle in twenty vehicles, a man loaded with weighty matters, in
+these deep Winter months; suffering dreadfully from rheumatic
+neuralgic ailments, a Doctor one of his needfulest equipments;
+and has the hardest problem yet ahead of him.
+
+"Prince Wilhelm's consultations are happily lost altogether;
+buried from sight forever, to the last hint,--all except as to what
+road to Berlin would be the best from Cassel. By Leipzig, through
+low-lying country, is the great Highway, advisable in winter;
+but it runs a hundred and thirty miles to right, before ever
+starting northward; such a roundabout. Not to say that the Saxons
+are allies of Austria,--if there be anything in that.
+Enemies, they, to the Most Christian King: though surely, again, we
+are on Kaiser's business, nay we are titular 'Prince of the Reich,'
+for that matter, such the Kaiser's grace to us? Well; it is better
+perhaps to AVOID the Saxon Territory. And, of course, the
+Hanoverian much more; through which lies the other Great Road!
+'Go by the Harz,' advises Landgraf Wilhelm: 'a rugged Hill Country;
+but it is your hypotenuse towards Berlin; passes at once, or nearly
+so, from Cassel Territory into Prussian: a rugged road, but a
+shorter and safer.' That is the road Belleisle resolves upon.
+Twenty carriages; his Brother the Chevalier and himself occupy one;
+and always the courier rides before, ordering forty post-horses to
+be ready harnessed.
+
+"SUNDAY, 20th DECEMBER, 1744. In this way they have climbed the
+eastern shin of the Harz Range, where the Harz is capable of wheel-
+carriages; and hope now to descend, this night, to Halberstadt;
+and thence rapidly by level roads to Berlin. It is sinking towards
+dark; the courier is forward to Elbingerode, ordering forty horses
+to be out. Roughish uphill road; winter in the sky and earth,
+winter vapors and tumbling wind-gusts: westward, in torn storm-
+cloak, the Bracken, with its witch-dances; highland Goslar, and
+ghost of Henry the Fowler, on the other side of it. A multifarious
+wizard Country, much overhung by goblin reminiscences, witch-
+dances, sorcerers'-sabbaths and the like,--if a rheumatic gentleman
+cared to look on it, in the cold twilight. Brrh! Waste chasmy
+uplands, snow-choked torrents; wild people, gloomy firs! Here at
+last, by one's watch 5 P.M., is Elbingerode, uncomfortable little
+Town; and it is to be hoped the forty post-horses are ready.
+
+"Behold, while the forty post-horses are getting ready, a thing
+takes place, most unexpected;--which made the name of Elbingerode
+famous for eight months to come. Of which let us hastily give the
+bare facts, Fancy making of them what she can. Was Monseigneur
+aware that this Elbingerode, with a patch of territory round it, is
+Hanoverian ground; one of those distracted patches or ragged
+outskirts frequent in the German map? Prussia is not yet, and
+Hessen-Cassel has ceased to be. Undoubtedly Hanoverian!
+Apparently the Landgraf and Monseigneur had not thought of that.
+But Munchhausen of Hanover, spies informing him, had. The Bailiff
+(Vogt, AdVOCATus) has gathered twenty JAGER [official Game-keepers]
+with their guns, and a select idle Sunday population of the place
+with or without guns: the Vogt steps forward, and inquires for
+Monseigneur's passport. 'No passport, no need of any!'--'Pardon!'
+and signifies to Monseigneur, on the part of George Elector of
+Hanover, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, that
+Monseigneur is arrested!
+
+"Monseigneur, with compressed or incompressible feelings,
+indignantly complies,--what could he else, unfortunate rheumatic
+gentleman?--and is plucked away in such sudden manner, he for one,
+out of that big German game of his raising. The twenty vehicles are
+dragged different roads; towards Scharzfels, Osterode, or I know
+not where,--handiest roads to Hanover;--and Monseigneur himself has
+travelling treatment which might be complained of, did not one
+disdain complaint: 'my Brother parted from me, nay my Doctor, and
+my Interpreter;'"--not even speech possible to me. [Letter of
+Belleisle next morning, "Neuhof, 21st December, 9 A.M." (in
+<italic> Valori, <end italic> i. 204), to Munchhausen at
+Hanover,--by no possibility "to Valori," as the distracted French
+Editor has given it!] That was the Belleisle Accident in the Harz,
+Sunday Evening, 20th December, 1744.
+
+"Afflicted indignant Valori, soon enough apprised, runs to
+Friedrich with the news,--greets Friedrich with it just alighting
+from that Silesian run of his own. Friedrich, not without several
+other things to think of, is naturally sorry at such news;
+sorry for his own sake even; but not overmuch. Friedrich refuses
+'to despatch a party of horse,' and cut out Marechal de Belleisle.
+"That will never do, MON CHER!'--and even gets into FROIDES
+PLAISANTERIES: 'Perhaps the Marechal did it himself?
+Tallard, prisoner after Blenheim, made PEACE, you know, in
+England?'--and the like; which grieved the soul of Valori, and
+convinced him of Friedrich's inhumanity, in a crying case.
+
+"Belleisle is lugged on to Hanover; his case not doubtful to
+Munchhausen, or the English Ministry,--though it raised great
+argument, (was the capture fair, was it unfair? Is he entitled to
+exchange by cartel, or not entitled?' and produced, in the next
+eight months, much angry animated pamphleteering and negotiation.
+For we hear by and by, he is to be forwarded to Stade, on the
+Hamburg sea-coast, where English Seventy-fours are waiting for him;
+his case still undecided;--and, in effect, it was not till after
+eight months that he got dismissal. 'Lodged handsomely in Windsor
+Palace,' in the interim; free on his parole, people of rank very
+civil to him, though the Gazetteers were sometimes ill-tongued,--
+had he understood their PATOIS, or concerned himself about such
+things. ["TUESDAY, 18th FEBRUARY [lst March, 1745], Marshal
+Belleisle landed at Harwich; lay at Greenwich Palace, having
+crossed Thames at the Isle of Dogs: next morning, about 10, set
+out, in a coach-and-six, Colonel Douglas and two troops of horse
+escorting; arrived 3 P.M.,--by Camberwell, Clapham, Wandsworth,
+over Kingston and Staines Bridges,--at Windsor Castle, and the
+apartments ready for him." (<italic> Gentleman's Magazine, <end
+italic> 1745, p 107.) Was let go 13th (24th) August, again with
+great pomp and civilities (ib. p. 442). See Adelung, iv. 299, 346;
+v. 83, 84.]
+
+"It was a current notion among contemporary mankind, this of
+Friedrich, that Belleisle's capture might be a mere collusion,
+meant to bring about a Peace in that Tallard fashion,--wide of the
+truth as such a notion is, far as any Peace was from following.
+To Britannic George and his Hanoverians it had merely seemed, Here
+was a chief War-Captain and Diplomatist among the French; the pivot
+of all these world-wide movements, as Valori defines him;
+which pivot, a chance offering, it were well to twitch from its
+socket, and see what would follow. Perhaps nothing will follow;
+next to nothing? A world, all waltzing in mad war, is not to be
+stopped by acting on any pivot; your waltzing world will find new
+pivots, or do without any, and perhaps only waltz the more madly
+for wanting the principal one."
+
+This withdrawal of Belleisle, the one Frenchman respected by
+Friedrich, or much interested for his own sake in things German, is
+reckoned a main cause why the French Alliance turned out so ill for
+Friedrich; and why French effort took more and more a Netherlands
+direction thenceforth, and these new French magnanimities on
+Friedrich's behalf issued in futility again. Probably they never
+could have issued in very much: but it is certain that, from this
+point, they also do become zero; and that Friedrich, from his
+French alliance, reaped from first to last nothing at all, except a
+great deal of obloquy from German neighbors, and from the French
+side endless trouble, anger and disappointment in every particular.
+Which 'might be a joy (though not unmixed) to Britannic Majesty and
+the subtle followers who had ginned this fine Belleisle bird in its
+flight over the Harz Range? Though again, had they passively let
+him wing his way, and he had GOT "to be Commander and Manager," as
+was in agitation,--he, Belleisle and in Germany, instead of
+Marechal de Saxe with the Netherlands as chief scene,--what an
+advantage might that have been to them!
+
+
+     THE KAISER KARL VII. GETS SECURED FROM OPPRESSIONS, IN A
+     TRAGIC WAY. FRIEDRICH PROPOSES PEACE, BUT TO NO PURPOSE.
+
+A still sadder cross for Friedrich, in the current of foreign
+Accidents and Diplomacies, was the next that befell; exactly a
+month later,--at Munchen, 20th January, 1745. Hardly was
+Belleisle's back turned, when her Hungarian Majesty, by her
+Bathyani and Company, broke furiously in upon the poor Kaiser and
+his Seckendorf-Segur defences. Belleisle had not reached the Harz,
+when all was going topsy-turvy there again, and the Donau-Valley
+fast falling back into Austrian hands. Nor is that the worst, or
+nearly so.
+
+"MUNCHEN, 20th JANUARY, 1745. This day poor Kaiser Karl laid down
+his earthly burden here, and at length gave all his enemies the
+slip. He had been ill of gout for some time; a man of much malady
+always, with no want of vexations and apprehensions. Too likely the
+Austrians will drive him out of Munchen again; then nothing but
+furnished lodgings, and the French to depend upon. He had been much
+chagrined by some Election, just done, in the Chapter of Salzburg.
+[Adelung, iv. 249, 276, 313.] The Archbishop there--it was Firmian,
+he of the SALZBURG EMIGRATION, memorable to readers--had died, some
+while ago. And now, in flat contradiction to Imperial customs,
+prerogatives, these people had admitted an Austrian Garrison;
+and then, in the teeth of our express precept, had elected an
+Austrian to their benefice: what can one account it but an insult
+as well as an injury? And the neuralgic maladies press sore, and
+the gouty twinges; and Belleisle is seized, perhaps with important
+papers of ours; and the Seckendorf-Segur detachments were ill
+placed; nay here are the Austrians already on the throat of them,
+in midwinter! It is said, a babbling valet, or lord-in-waiting,
+happened to talk of some skirmish that had fallen out (called a
+battle, in the valet rumor), and how ill the French and Bavarians
+had fared in it, owing to their ill behavior. And this, add they,
+proved to be the ounce-weight too much for the so heavy-laden back.
+
+"The Kaiser took to bed, not much complaining; patient, mild,
+though the saddest of all mortals; and, in a day or two, died.
+Adieu, adieu, ye loved faithful ones; pity me, and pray for me!
+He gave his Wife, poor little fat devout creature, and his poor
+Children (eldest lad, his Heir, only seventeen), a tender blessing;
+solemnly exhorted them, To eschew ambition, and be warned by his
+example;--to make their peace with Austria; and never, like him,
+try COM' E DURO CALLE, and what the charity of Christian Kings
+amounts to. This counsel, it is thought, the Empress Dowager
+zealously accedes to, and will impress upon her Son. That is the
+Austrian and Cause-of-Liberty account: King Friedrich, from the
+other side, has heard a directly opposite one. How the Kaiser, at
+the point of death, exhorted his son, 'Never forget the services
+which the King of France and the King of Prussia have done us, and
+do not repay them with ingratitude.' [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic,
+<end italic> iii. 92;--and see (PER CONTRA) in Adelung, iv. 314 A;
+in Coxe, &c.] The reader can choose which he will, or reject both
+into the region of the uncertain. 'Karl Albert's pious and
+affectionate demeanor drew tears from all eyes,' say the by-
+standers: 'the manner in which he took leave of his Empress
+would have melted a heart of stone.' He was in his forty-eighth
+year; he had been, of all men in his generation, the most
+conspicuously unhappy."
+
+What a down-rush of confusion there ensued on this event, not to
+Bavaria alone, but to all the world, and to King Friedrich more
+than another, no reader can now take the pains of conceiving.
+The "Frankfurt Union," then, has gone to air! Here is now no
+"Kaiser to be delivered from oppression:" here is a new Kaiser to
+be elected,--"Grand-Duke Franz the man," cry the Pragmatic
+Potentates with exultation, "no Belleisle to disturb!"--and
+questions arise innumerable thereupon, Will France go into
+electioneering again? The new Kur-Baiern, only seventeen, poor
+child, cannot be set up as candidate. What will France do with HIM;
+what he with France? Whom can the French try as Candidate against
+the Grand-Duke? Kur-Sachsen, the Polish Majesty again? Belleisle
+himself must have paused uncertain over such a welter,--and
+probably have done, like the others, little or nothing in it, but
+left it to collapse by natural gravitation.
+
+Hungarian Majesty checked her Bavarian Armaments a little:
+"If perhaps this young Kur-Baiern will detach himself from France,
+and on submissive terms come over to us?" Whereupon, at Munchen,
+and in the cognate quarters, such wriggling, dubitating and
+diplomatizing, as seldom was,--French, Anti-French (Seckendorf
+busiest of all), straining every nerve in that way, and for almost
+three months, nothing coming of it,--till Hungarian Majesty sent
+her Barenklaus and Bathyanis upon them again; and these rapidly
+solved the question, in what way we shall see!
+
+Friedrich has still his hopes of Bavaria, so grandiloquent are the
+French in regard to it; who but would hope? The French diplomatize
+to all lengths in Munchen, promising seas and mountains; but they
+perform little; in an effectual manner, nothing. Bavarian "Army
+raised to 60,000;" counts in fact little above half that number;
+with no General to it but an imaginary one; Segur's actual French
+contingent, instead of 25,000, is perhaps 12,000;--and so of other
+things. Add to all which, Seckendorf is there, not now as War-
+General, but as extra-official "Adviser;" busier than ever,--
+"scandalous old traitor!" say the French;--and Friedrich may justly
+fear that Bavaria will go, by collapse, a bad road for him.
+
+Friedrich, a week or two after the Kaiser's death, seeing Bavarian
+and French things in such a hypothetic state, instructs his
+Ambassador at London to declare his, Friedrich's, perfect readiness
+and wish for Peace: "Old Treaty of Breslau and Berlin made
+indubitable to me; the rest of the quarrel has, by decease of the
+Kaiser, gone to air." To which the Britannic Majesty, rather elated
+at this time, as all Pragmatic people are, answers somewhat in a
+careless way, "Well, if the others like it!" and promises that he
+will propose it in the proper quarter. So that henceforth there is
+always a hope of Peace through England; as well as contrariwise,
+especially till Bavaria settle itself (in April next), a hope of
+great assistance from the French. Here are potentialities and
+counter-potentialities, which make the Bavarian Intricacy very
+agitating to the young King, while it lasts. And indeed his world
+is one huge imbroglio of Potentialities and Diplomatic Intricacies,
+agitating to behold. Concerning which we have again to remark how
+these huge Spectres of Diplomacy, now filling Friedrich's world,
+came mostly in result to Nothing;--shaping themselves wholly, for
+or against, in exact proportion, direct or inverse, to the actual
+Quantity of Battle and effective Performance that happened to be
+found in Friedrich himself. Diplomatic Spectralities, wide
+Fatamorganas of hope, and hideous big Bugbears blotting out the
+sun: of these, few men ever had more than Friedrich at this time.
+And he is careful, none carefuler, not to neglect his Diplomacies
+at any time;--though he knows, better than most, that good fighting
+of his own is what alone can determine the value of these
+contingent and aerial quantities,--mere Lapland witchcraft the
+greater part of them.
+
+A second grand Intricacy and difficulty, still more enigmatic, and
+pressing the tighter by its close neighborhood, was that with the
+Saxons. "Are the Saxons enemies; are they friends? Neutrals at
+lowest; bound by Treaty to lend Austria troops; but to lend for
+defence merely, not for offence! Could not one, by good methods,
+make friends with his Polish Majesty?" Friedrich was far from
+suspecting the rages that lurked in the Polish Majesty, and least
+of all owing to what. Owing to that old MORAVIAN-FORAY business;
+and to his, Friedrich's, behavior to the Saxons in it; excellent
+Saxons, who had behaved so beautifully to Friedrich! That is the
+sad fact, however. Stupid Polish Majesty has his natural envies,
+jealousies, of a Brandenburg waxing over his head at this rate.
+But it appears, the Moravian Foray entered for a great deal into
+the account, and was the final overwhelming item. Bruhl, by much
+descanting on that famous Expedition,--with such candid Eye-
+witnesses to appeal to, such corroborative Staff-officers and
+appliances, powerful on the idle heart and weak brain of a Polish
+Majesty,--has brought it so far. Fixed indignation, for intolerable
+usage, especially in that Moravian-Foray time: fixed; not very
+malignant, but altogether obstinate (as, I am told, that of the
+pacific sheep species usually is); which carried Bruhl and his
+Polish Majesty to extraordinary heights and depths in years coming!
+But that will deserve a section to itself by and by.
+
+A third difficulty, privately more stringent than any, is that of
+Finance. The expenses of the late Bohemian Expedition, "Friedrich's
+Army costing 75,000 pounds a month," have been excessive. For our
+next Campaign, if it is to be done in the way essential, there are,
+by rigorous arithmetic, "900,000 pounds" needed. A frugal Prussia
+raises no new taxes; pays its Wars from "the Treasure," from the
+Fund saved beforehand for emergencies of that kind; Fund which is
+running low, threatening to be at the lees if such drain on it
+continue. To fight with effect being the one sure hope, and salve
+for all sores, it is not in the Army, in the Fortresses, the
+Fighting Equipments, that there shall be any flaw left!
+Friedrich's budget is a sore problem upon him; needing endless
+shift and ingenuity, now and onwards, through this war:--already,
+during these months, in the Berlin Schloss, a great deal of those
+massive Friedrich-Wilhelm plate Sumptuosities, especially that
+unparalleled Music-Balcony up stairs, all silver, has been, under
+Fredersdorf's management, quietly taken away; "carried over, in the
+night-time, to the Mint." [Orlich, ii. 126-128.]
+
+And, in fact, no modern reader, not deeper in that distressing
+story of the Austrian-Succession War than readers are again like to
+be, can imagine to himself the difficulties of Friedrich at this
+time, as they already lay disclosed, and kept gradually disclosing
+themselves, for months coming; nor will ever know what
+perspicacity, patience of scanning, sharpness of discernment,
+dexterity of management, were required at Friedrich's hands;--and
+under what imminency of peril, too; victorious deliverance, or ruin
+and annihilation, wavering fearfully in the balance for him, more
+than once, or rather all along. But it is certain the deeper one
+goes into that hideous Medea's Caldron of stupidities, once so
+flamy, now fallen extinct, the more is one sensible of Friedrich's
+difficulties; and of the talent for all kinds of Captaincy,--by no
+means in the Field only, or perhaps even chiefly,--that was now
+required of him. Candid readers shall accept these hints, and do
+their best:--Friedrich himself made not the least complaint of
+men's then misunderstanding him; still less will he now!
+We, keeping henceforth the Diplomacies, the vaporous Foreshadows,
+and general Dance of Unclean Spirits with their intrigues and
+spectralities, well underground, so far as possible, will stick to
+what comes up as practical Performance on Friedrich's part, and try
+to give intelligible account of that.
+
+Valori says, he is greatly changed, and for the better, by these
+late reverses of fortune. All the world notices it, says Valori.
+No longer that brief infallibility of manner; that lofty light air,
+that politely disdainful view of Valori and mankind: he has now
+need of men. Complains of nothing, is cheerful, quizzical;--
+ardently busy to "grind out the notches," as our proverb is; has a
+mild humane aspect, something of modesty, almost of piety in him.
+Help me, thou Supreme Power, Maker of men, if my purposes are
+manlike! Though one does not go upon the Prayers of Forty-Hours, or
+apply through St. Vitus and such channels, there may be something
+of authentic petition to Heaven in the thoughts of that young man.
+He is grown very amiable; the handsomest young bit of Royalty now
+going. He must fight well next Summer, or it will go hard with him!
+
+
+
+
+                           Chapter VI.
+
+       VALORI GOES ON AN ELECTIONEERING MISSION TO DRESDEN.
+ 
+Some time in January, a new Frenchman, a "Chevalier de Courten," if
+the name is known to anybody, was here at Berlin; consulting,
+settling about mutual interests and operations. Since Belleisle is
+snatched from us, it is necessary some Courten should come;
+and produce what he has got: little of settlement, I should fear,
+of definite program that will hold water; in regard to War
+operations chiefly a magazine of clouds. [Specimens of it, in
+Ranke, iii. 219.] For the rest, the Bavarian question; and very
+specially, Who the new Emperor is to be? "King of Poland, thinks
+your Majesty?"--"By all means," answers Friedrich, "if you can!
+Detach him from Austria; that will be well!" Which was reckoned
+magnanimous, at least public-spirited, in Friedrich; considering
+what Saxony's behavior to him had already been. "By all means, his
+Polish Majesty for Kaiser; do our utmost, Excellencies Valori,
+Courten and Company!" answers Friedrich,--and for his own part,
+I observe, is intensely busy upon Army matters, looking after the
+main chance.
+
+And so Valori is to go to Dresden, and manage this cloud or
+cobwebbery department of the thing; namely, persuade his Polish
+Majesty to stand for the Kaisership: "Baiern, Pfalz, Koln,
+Brandenburg, there are four votes, Sire; your own is five: sure of
+carrying it, your Polish Majesty; backed by the Most Christian
+King, and his Allies and resources!" And Polish Majesty does, for
+his own share, very much desire to be Kaiser. But none of us yet
+knows how he is tied up by Austria, Anti-Friedrich, Anti-French
+considerations; and can only "accept if it is offered me:" thrice-
+willing to accept, if it will fall into my mouth; which, on those
+terms, it has so little chance of doing!--Saxony and its mysterious
+affairs and intentions having been, to Friedrich, a riddle and
+trouble and astonishment, during all this Campaign, readers ought
+to know the fact well;--and no reader could stand the details of
+such a fact. Here, in condensed form, are some scraps of Excerpt;
+which enable us to go with Valori on this Dresden Mission, and look
+for ourselves:--
+
+
+             1. FRIEDRICH'S POSITION TOWARDS SAXONY.
+
+"... By known Treaty, the Polish Majesty is bound to assist the
+Hungarian with 12,000 men, 'whenever invaded in her own dominions.'
+Polish Majesty had 20,000 in the field for that object lately,--
+part of them, 8,000 of them, hired by Britannic subsidy, as he
+alleges. The question now is, Will Saxony assist Austria in
+invading Silesia, with or without Britannic subsidy?
+Friedrich hopes that this is impossible! Friedrich is deeply
+unaware of the humor he has raised against himself in the Saxon
+Court-circles; how the Polish Majesty regards that Moravian Foray;
+with what a perfect hatred little Bruhl regards him, Friedrich;
+and to what pitch of humor, owing to those Moravian-Foray
+starvings, marchings about and inhuman treatment of the poor Saxon
+Army, not to mention other offences and afflictive considerations,
+Bruhl has raised the simple Polish Majesty against Friedrich.
+These things, as they gradually unfolded themselves to Friedrich,
+were very surprising. And proved very disadvantageous at the
+present juncture and for a long time afterwards. To Friedrich
+disadvantageous and surprising; and to Saxony, in the end, ruinous;
+poor Saxony having got its back broken by them, and never stood up
+in the world since! Ruined by this wretched little Bruhl;
+and reduced, from the first place in Northern Teutschland, to a
+second or third, or no real place at all."
+
+
+       2. THERE IS A, "UNION OF WARSAW" (8th January, 1745);
+           AND STILL MORE SPECIALLY A "TREATY OF WARSAW"
+                    (8th January-18th May, 1745). 
+
+"January 8th, 1745, before the Old Dessauer got ranked in Schlesien
+against Traun, there had concluded itself at Warsaw, by way of
+counterpoise to the 'Frankfurt Union,' a 'Union of Warsaw,' called
+also 'Quadruple Alliance of Warsaw;' the Parties to which were
+Polish Majesty, Hungarian ditto, Prime-Movers, and the two
+Sea-Powers as Purseholders; stipulating, to the effect: 'We Four
+will hold together in affairs of the Reich VERSUS that dangerous
+Frankfurt Union; we will'--do a variety of salutary things; and as
+one practical thing, 'There shall be, this Season, 30,000 Saxons
+conjoined to the Austrian Force, for which we Sea-Powers will
+furnish subsidy.'--This was the one practical point stipulated,
+January 8th; and farther than this the Sea-Powers did not go, now
+or afterwards, in that affair.
+
+"But there was then proposed by the Polish and Hungarian Majesties,
+in the form of Secret Articles, an ulterior Project; with which the
+Sea-Powers, expressing mere disbelief and even abhorrence of it,
+refused to have any concern now or henceforth. Polish Majesty, in
+hopes it would have been better taken, had given his 30,000
+soldiers at a rate of subsidy miraculously low, only 150,000 pounds
+for the whole: but the Sea-Powers were inexorable, perhaps almost
+repented of their 150,000 pounds; and would hear nothing farther of
+secret Articles and delirious Projects.
+
+"So that the 'Union of Warsaw' had to retire to its pigeon-hole,
+content with producing those 30,000 Saxons for the immediate
+occasion; and there had to be concocted between the Polish and
+Hungarian Majesties themselves what is now, in the modern
+Pamphlets, called a 'TREATY of Warsaw,'--much different from the
+innocent, 'UNION of Warsaw;' though it is merely the specifying and
+fixing down of what had been shadowed out as secret codicils in
+said 'Union,' when the Sea-Power parties obstinately recoiled.
+Treaty of Warsaw let us continue to call it; though its actual
+birth-place was Leipzig (in the profoundest secrecy, 18th May,
+1745), above four months after it had tried to be born at Warsaw,
+and failed as aforesaid. Warsaw Union is not worth speaking of;
+but this other is a Treaty highly remarkable to the reader,--and to
+Friedrich was almost infinitely so, when he came to get wind of it
+long after.
+
+"Treaty which, though it proved abortional, and never came to
+fulfilment in any part of it, is at this day one of the
+remarkablest bits of sheepskin extant in the world. It was signed
+18th May, 1745;  [Scholl, ii. 350.] and had cost a great deal of
+painful contriving, capable still of new altering and retouching,
+to hit mutual views: Treaty not only for reconquering Silesia
+(which to the Two Majesties, though it did not to the Sea-Powers,
+seems infallible, in Friedrich's now ruined circumstances), but for
+cutting down that bad Neighbor to something like the dimensions
+proper for a Brandenburg Vassal;--in fact, quite the old
+'Detestable Project' of Spring, 1741, only more elaborated into
+detail (in which Britannic George knows better than to meddle!)--
+Saxony to have share of the parings, when we get them.
+'What share?' asked Saxony, and long keeps asking. 'A road to
+Warsaw; Strip of Country carrying us from the end of the Lausitz,
+which is ours, into Poland, which we trust will continue ours,
+would be very handy! Duchy of Glogau; some small paring of Silesia,
+won't your Majesty?' 'Of my Silesia not one hand-breadth,' answered
+the Queen impatiently (though she did at last concede some outlying
+hand-breadths, famed old 'Circle of Schwiebus,' if I recollect);
+and they have had to think of other equivalent parings for Saxony's
+behoof (Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Saale-Circle, or one knows not
+what); and have had, and will have, their adoes to get it fixed.
+Excellent bearskin to be slit into straps; only the bear is still
+on his feet!--Polish Majesty and Hungarian, Polish with especial
+vigor, Bruhl quite restless upon it, are--little as Valori or any
+mortal could dream of it--engaged in this partition of the
+bearskin, when Valori arrives. Of their innocent Union of Warsaw,
+there was, from the first, no secret made; but the Document now
+called 'TREATY of Warsaw' needs to lie secret and thrice-secret;
+and it was not till 1756 that Friedrich, having unearthed it by
+industries of his own, and studied it with great intensity for some
+years, made it known to the world." [Adelung, v. 308. 397;
+Ranke, iii. 231 (who, for some reason of his own, dates "3d May"
+instead of 18th}.]
+
+Treaties, vaporous Foreshadows of Events, have oftenest something
+of the ghost in them; and are importune to human nature, longing
+for the Events themselves; all the more if they have proved
+abortional Treaties, and become doubly ghost-like or ghastly.
+Nevertheless the reader is to note well this Treaty of Warsaw, as
+important to Friedrich and him; and indeed it is perhaps the
+remarkablest Treaty, abortional or realized, which got to parchment
+in that Century. For though it proved abortional, and no part of
+it, now or afterwards, could be executed, and even the subsidy and
+30,000 Saxons (stipulated in the "UNION of Warsaw") became crow's-
+meat in a manner,--this preternatural "Treaty of Warsaw," trodden
+down never so much by the heel of Destiny, and by the weight of new
+Treaties, superseding it or presupposing its impossibility or
+inconceivability, would by no means die (such the humor of Bruhl,
+of the Two Majesties and others); but lay alive under the ashes,
+carefully tended, for Ten or Twenty Years to come;--and had got all
+Europe kindled again, for destruction of that bad Neighbor, before
+it would itself consent to go out! And did succeed in getting
+Saxony's back broken, if not the bad Neighbor's,--in answer to the
+humor of little Bruhl; unfortunate Saxony to possess such a Bruhl!
+
+In those beautiful Saxon-Austrian developments of the Treaty of
+Warsaw, Czarina Elizabeth, bobbing about in that unlovely whirlpool
+of intrigues, amours, devotions and strong liquor, which her
+History is, took (ask not for what reason) a lively part:--and
+already in this Spring of 1745, they hope she could, by "a gift of
+two millions for her pleasures" (gift so easy to you Sea-Powers),
+be stirred up to anger against Friedrich. And she did, in effect,
+from this time, hover about in a manner questionable to Friedrich;
+though not yet in anger, but only with the wish to be important,
+and to make herself felt in Foreign affairs. Whether the Sea-Powers
+gave her that trifle of pocket-money ("for her pleasures"), I never
+knew; but it is certain they spent, first and last, very large
+amounts that way, upon her and hers; especially the English did,
+with what result may be considered questionable.
+
+As for Graf von Bruhl, most rising man of Saxony, once a page;
+now by industry King August III.'s first favorite and factotum;
+the fact that he cordially hates Friedrich is too evident; but the
+why is not known to me. Except indeed, That no man--especially no
+man with three hundred and sixty-five fashionable suits of clothes
+usually about him, different suit each day of the year--can be
+comfortable in the evident contempt of another man. Other man of
+sarcastic bantering turn, too; tongue sharp as needles;
+whose sayings many birds of the air are busy to carry about.
+Year after year, Bruhl (doubtless with help enough that way, if
+there had needed such) hates him more and more; as the too jovial
+Czarina herself comes to do, wounded by things that birds have
+carried. And now we will go with Valori,--seeing better into some
+things than Valori yet can.
+
+
+     3. VALORI'S ACCOUNT OF HIS MISSION (in compressed form).
+                      [Valori, i. 211-219.]
+
+"Valori [I could guess about the 10th of February, but there is no
+date at all] was despatched to Dresden with that fine project,
+Polish Majesty for Kaiser: is authorized to offer 60,000 men, with
+money corresponding, and no end of brilliant outlooks;--must keep
+back his offers, however, if he find the people indisposed.
+Which he did, to an extreme degree; nothing but vague talk,
+procrastination, hesitation on the part of Bruhl. This wretched
+little Bruhl has twelve tailors always sewing for him, and three
+hundred and sixty-five suits of clothes: so many suits, all
+pictured in a Book; a valet enters every morning, proposes a suit,
+which, after deliberation, with perhaps amendments, is acceded to,
+and worn at dinner. Vainest of human clothes-horses; foolishest
+coxcomb Valori has seen: it is visibly his notion that it was he,
+Bruhl, by his Saxon auxiliaries, by his masterly strokes of policy,
+that checkmated Friedrich, and drove him from Bohemia last Year;
+and, for the rest, that Friedrich is ruined, and will either shirk
+out of Silesia, or be cut to ribbons there by the Austrian force
+this Summer. To which Valori hints dissent; but it is ill received.
+Valori sees the King; finds him, as expected, the fac-simile of
+Bruhl in this matter; Jesuit Guarini the like: how otherwise?
+They have his Majesty in their leash, and lead him as they please.
+
+"At four every morning, this Guarini, Jesuit Confessor to the King
+and Queen, comes to Bruhl; Bruhl settles with him what his Majesty
+shall think, in reference to current business, this day;
+Guarini then goes, confesses both Majesties; confesses, absolves,
+turns in the due way to secular matters. At nine, Bruhl himself
+arrives, for Privy Council: 'What is your Majesty pleased to think
+on these points of current business?' Majesty serenely issues his
+thoughts, in the form of orders; which are found correct to
+pattern. This is the process with his Majesty. A poor Majesty,
+taking deeply into tobacco; this is the way they have him benetted,
+as in a dark cocoon of cobwebs, rendering the whole world invisible
+to him. Which cunning arrangement is more and more perfected every
+year; so that on all roads he travels, be it to mass, to hunt, to
+dinner, any-whither in his Palace or out of it, there are faithful
+creatures keeping eye, who admit no unsafe man to the least glimpse
+of him by night or by day. In this manner he goes on; and before
+the end of him, twenty years hence, has carried it far. Nothing but
+disgust to be had out of business;--mutinous Polish Diets too, some
+forty of them, in his time, not one of which did any business at
+all, but ended in LIBERUM VETO, and Billingsgate conflagration,
+perhaps with swords drawn: [See Buchholz, 154; &c.]--business more
+and more disagreeable to him. What can Valori expect, on this
+heroic occasion, from such a King?
+
+"The Queen herself, Maria Theresa's Cousin, an ambitious
+hard-favored Majesty,--who had sense once to dislike Bruhl, but has
+been quite reconciled to him by her Jesuit Messenger of Heaven
+(which latter is an oily, rather stupid creature, who really wishes
+well to her, and loves a peaceable life at any price),--even she
+will not take the bait. Valori was in Dresden nine days (middle
+part of February, it is likely); never produced his big bait, his
+60,000 men and other brilliancies, at all. He saw old Feldmarschall
+Konigseck passing from Vienna towards the Netherlands Camp;
+where he is to dry-nurse (so they irreverently call it, in time
+coming) his Royal Highness of Cumberland, that magnificent English
+Babe of War, and do feats with him this Summer." Konigseck, though
+Valori did not know it, has endless diplomacies to do withal;
+inspections of troops, advisings, in Hanover, in Holland, in
+Dresden here; [Anonymous, <italic> Duke of Cumberland, <end italic>
+p. 186.]--and secures the Saxon Electoral-Vote for his Grand-Duke
+in passing. "The welcome given to Konigseck disgusted Valori;
+on the ninth day he left; said adieu, seeing them blind to their
+interest; and took post for Berlin,"--where he finds Friedrich much
+out of humor at the Saxon reception of his magnanimities. [Valori,
+i. 211-219; <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> iii. 81-85.
+For details on Bruhl, see <italic> Graf von Bruhl, Leben und
+Charakter <end italic> (1760, No Place): Anonymous, by one Justi, a
+noted Pamphleteer of the time: exists in English too, or partly
+exists; but is unreadable, except on compulsion; and totally
+unintelligible till after very much inquiry elsewhere.]
+
+This Saxon intricacy, indecipherable, formidable, contemptible, was
+the plague of Friedrich's life, one considerable plague, all
+through this Campaign. Perhaps nothing in the Diplomatic sphere of
+things caused him such perplexity, vexation, indignation.
+An insoluble riddle to him; extremely contemptible, yet,--with a
+huge Russia tacked to it, and looming minatory in the distance,--
+from time to time, formidable enough. Let readers keep it in mind,
+and try to imagine it. It cost Friedrich such guessing, computing,
+arranging, rearranging, as would weary the toughest reader to hear
+of in detail. How Friedrich did at last solve it (in December
+coming), all readers will see with eyes!--
+
+
+       MIDDLE-RHINE AWNY IN A STAGGERING STATE; THE BAVARIAN
+             INTRICACY SETTLES ITSELF, THE WRONG WAY.
+
+Early in March it becomes surmisable that Maillebois's Middle-Rhine
+Army will not go a good road. Maillebois has been busy in those
+countries, working extensive discontent; bullying mankind "to join
+the Frankfurt Union," to join France at any rate, which nobody
+would consent to; and exacting merciless contributions, which
+everybody had to consent to and pay.--And now, on D'Ahremberg's
+mere advance, with that poor Fraction of Pragmatic Army, roused
+from its winter sleep, Maillebois, without waiting for
+D'Ahremberg's attack, rapidly calls in his truculent detachments,
+and rolls confusedly back into the Frankfurt regions. [Adelung, iv.
+276-352 (December, 1744-March, 1745).] Upon which D'Ahremberg--if
+by no means going upon Maillebois's throat--sets, at least, to
+coercing Wilhelm of Hessen, our only friend in those parts; who is
+already a good deal disgusted with the Maillebois procedures, and
+at a loss what to do on the Kaiser's death, which has killed the
+Frankfurt Union too. Wise Wilhelm consents, under D'Ahremberg's
+menaces, to become Neutral; and recall his 6,000 out of Baiern,--
+wishes he had them home beside him even now!
+
+With an Election in the wind, it is doubly necessary for the
+French, who have not even a Candidate as yet, to stand supreme and
+minatory in the Frankfurt Country; and to King Friedrich it is
+painfully questionable, whether Maillebois can do it. "Do it we
+will; doubt not that, your Majesty!" answer Valori and the French;
+--and study to make improvements, reinforcements, in their Rhine
+Army. And they do, at least, change the General of their Middle-
+Rhine Army,--that is to say, recall Prince Conti out of Italy,
+where he has distinguished himself, and send Maillebois thither in
+his stead,--who likewise distinguishes himself THERE, if that could
+be a comfort to us! Whether the distinguished Conti will maintain
+that Frankfurt Country in spite of the Austrians and their Election
+movements, is still a question with Friedrich, though Valori
+continued assuring him (always till July came) that, it was beyond
+question. "Siege of Tournay, vigorous Campaign in the Netherlands
+(for behoof of Britannic George)!" this is the grand French program
+for the Year. This good intention was achieved, on the French part;
+but this, like Aaron's rod among the serpents, proved to have EATEN
+the others as it wriggled along!--
+
+Those Maillebois-D'Ahremberg affairs throw a damp on the Bavarian
+Question withal;--in fact, settle the Bavarian Question; her
+Hungarian Majesty, tired of the delays, having ordered Bathyani to
+shoulder arms again, and bring a decision. Bathyani, with Barenklau
+to right of him, and Browne (our old Silesian friend) to left, goes
+sweeping across those Seckendorf-Segur posts, and without
+difficulty tumbles everything to ruin, at a grand rate. The traitor
+Seckendorf had made such a choice of posts,--left unaltered by Drum
+Thorring;--what could French valor do? Nothing; neither French
+valor, nor Bavarian want of valor, could do anything but whirl to
+the right-about, at sight of the Austrian Sweeping-Apparatus;
+and go off explosively, as in former instances, at a rate almost
+unique in military annals. Finished within three weeks or so!--
+We glance only at two points of it. March 21st, Bathyani stood to
+arms (to BESOMS we might call it), Browne on the left, Barenklau on
+the right: it was March 21st when Bathyani started from Passau, up
+the Donau Countries;--and within the week coming, see:--
+
+"VILSHOFEN, 28th MARCH, 1745. Here, at the mouth of the Vils River
+(between Inn and Iser), is the first considerable Post;
+garrison some 4,000; Hessians and Prince Friedrich the main
+part,--who have their share of valor, I dare say; but with such
+news out of Hessen, not to speak of the prospects in this Country,
+are probably in poorish spirits for acting. General Browne summons
+them in Vilshofen, this day; and, on their negative, storms in upon
+them, bursts them to pieces; upon which they beat chamade. But the
+Croats, who are foremost, care nothing for chamade: go plundering,
+slaughtering; burn the poor Town; butcher [in round numbers] 3,000
+of the poor Hessians; and wound General Browne himself, while he
+too vehemently interferes." [Adelung, iv. 356, and the half-
+intelligible Foot-note in Ranke, iii. 220.] This was the finale of
+those 6,000 Hessians, and indeed their principal function, while in
+French pay;--and must have been, we can Judge how surprising to
+Prince Friedrich, and to his Papa on hearing of it!
+Note another point.
+
+Precisely about this time twelvemonth, "March 16th, 1746," the same
+Prince Friedrich, with remainder of those Hessians, now again
+completed to 6,000, and come back with emphasis to the Britannic
+side of things, was--marching out of Edinburgh, in much state, with
+streamers, kettle-drums, Highness's coaches, horses, led-horses, on
+an unexpected errand. [Henderson (Whig Eye-witness). <italic>
+History of the Rebellion, <end italic> 1745 and 1746 (London, 1748,
+reprint from the Edinburgh edition), pp. 104, 106, 107.]
+Toward Stirling, Perth; towards Killiecrankie, and raising of what
+is called "the Siege of Blair in Athol" (most minute of "sieges,"
+but subtending a great angle there and then);--much of unexpected,
+and nearer home than "Tournay and the Netherlands Campaign," having
+happened to Britannic George in the course of this year, 1746!
+"Really very fine troops, those Hessians [observes my orthodox Whig
+friend]: they carry swords as well as guns and bayonets;
+their uniform is blue turned up with white: the Hussar part of
+them, about 500, have scimitars of a great length; small horses,
+mostly black, of Swedish breed; swift durable little creatures,
+with long tails." Honors, dinners, to his Serene Highness had been
+numerous, during the three weeks we had him in Edinburgh;
+"especially that Ball, February 21st (o.s.), eve of his Consort the
+Princess Mary's Birthday [EVE of birthday, "let us dance the
+auspicious morning IN] was, for affluence of Nobility and Gentry of
+both sexes," a sublime thing. ...
+
+PFAFFENHOFEN, APRIL 15th. "Unfortunate Segur, the Segur of Linz
+three years ago,--whose conduct was great, according to Valori, but
+powerless against traitors and fate!--was again, once more,
+unfortunate in those parts. Unfortunate Segur drew up at
+Pfaffenhofen (centre of the Country, many miles from Vilshofen) to
+defend himself, when fallen upon by Barenklau, in that manner;
+but could not, though with masterly demeanor; and had to retreat
+three days, with his face to the enemy, so to speak, fighting and
+manoeuvring all the way: no shelter for him either but Munchen, and
+that, a most temporary one. Instead of taking Straubingen, taking
+Passau, perhaps of pushing on to Vienna itself, this is what we
+have already come to. No Rhine Army, Middle-Rhine Army, Coigny,
+Maillebois, Conti, whoever it was, should send us the least
+reinforcement, when shrieked to. No outlook whatever but rapid
+withdrawal, retreat to the Rhine Army, since it will not stir to
+help us." [Adelung, iv. 360.]
+
+"The young Kur-Baiern is still polite, grateful [to us French],
+overwhelms us with politeness; but flies to Augsburg, as his Father
+used to do. Notable, however, his poor fat little Mother won't,
+this time: 'No, I will stay here, I for one, and have done with
+flying and running; we have had enough of that!' Seckendorf, quite
+gone from Court in this crisis, reappears, about the middle of
+April, in questionable capacity; at a place called Fussen, not far
+off, at the foot of the Tyrol Hills;--where certain Austrian
+Dignitaries seem also to be enjoying a picturesque Easter!
+Yes indeed: and, on APRIL 22d, there is signed a 'PEACE OF FUSSEN'
+there; general amicable AS-YOU-WERE, between Austria and Bavaria
+('Renounce your Anti-Pragmatic moonshine forevermore, vote for our
+Grand-Duke; there is your Bavaria back, poor wretches!')--
+and Seckendorf, it is presumable, will get his Turkish
+arrears liquidated.
+
+"The Bavarian Intricacy, which once excelled human power, is
+settled, then. Carteret and Haslang tried it in vain [dreadful
+heterodox intentions of secularizing Salzburg, secularizing Passau,
+Regensburg, and loud tremulous denial of such];--Carteret and
+Wilhelm of Hesseu [Conferences of Hanau, which ruined Carteret], in
+vain; King Friedrich, and many Kings, in vain: a thing nobody could
+settle;--and it has at last settled itself, as the generality of
+ill-guided and unlucky things do, by collapse. Delirium once out,
+the law of gravity acts; and there the mad matter lies."
+
+"Bought by Austria, that old villain!" cry the French.
+Friedrich does not think the Austrians bought Seckendorf, having no
+money at present; but guesses they may have given him to understand
+that a certain large arrear of payment due ever since those Turkish
+Wars,--when Seckendorf, instead of payment, was lodged in the
+Fortress of Gratz, and almost got his head cut off,--should now be
+paid down in cash, or authentic Paper-money, if matters become
+amicable. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> iii. 22;
+<italic> Seckendorfs Leben, <end italic> pp. 367-376.] As they have
+done, in Friedrich's despite;--who seems angrier at the old stager
+for this particular ill-turn than for all the other many; and long
+remembers it, as will appear.
+
+
+
+                          Chapter VII.
+
+              FRIEDRICH IN SILESIA; UNUSUALLY BUSY.
+
+Here, sure enough, are sad new intricacies in the Diplomatic,
+hypothetic sphere of things; and clouds piling themselves ahead, in
+a very minatory manner to King Friedrich. Let King Friedrich, all
+the more, get his Fighting Arrangements made perfect. Diplomacy is
+clouds; beating of your enemies is sea and land. Austria and the
+Gazetteer world consider Friedrich to be as good as finished:
+but that is privately far from being Friedrich's own opinion;--
+though these occurrences are heavy and dismal to him, as none of us
+can now fancy.
+
+Herr Ranke has got access, in the Archives, to a series of private
+utterances by Friedrich,--Letters from him, of a franker nature
+than usual, and letting us far deeper into his mind;--which must
+have been well worth reading in the original, in their fully dated
+and developed condition. From Herr Ranke's Fragmentary Excerpts,
+let us, thankful for what we have got, select one or two.
+The Letters are to Minister Podewils at Berlin; written from
+Silesia (Neisse and neighborhood), where, since the middle of
+March, Friedrich has been, personally pushing on his Army
+Preparations, while the above sinister things befell.
+
+
+    KING FRIEDRICH TO PODEWILS, IN BERLIN (under various dates,
+                        March-April, 1745).
+
+NEISSE, 29th MARCH. ... "We find ourselves in a great crisis. If we
+don't, by mediation of England, get Peace, our enemies from
+different sides [Saxony, Austria, who knows if not Russia withal!]
+will come plunging in against me. Peace I cannot force them to.
+But if they must have War, we will either beat them, or none of us
+will see Berlin again." [Ranke, iii. 236 et seqq.]
+
+APRIL (no day given). ... "In any case, I have my troops well
+together. The sicknesses are ceasing; the recruitments are coming
+in: shortly all will be complete. That does not hinder us from
+making Peace, if it will only come; but, in the contrary case,
+nobody can accuse me of neglecting what was necessary."
+
+APRIL 17th (still from Neisse). ... "I toil day and night to
+improve our situation. The soldiers will do their duty. There is
+none among us who will not rather have his backbone broken than
+give up one foot-breadth of ground. They must either grant us a
+good Peace, or we will surpass ourselves by miracles of daring;
+and force the enemy to accept it from us."
+
+APRIL 20th. "Our situation is disagreeable; constrained, a kind of
+spasm: but my determination is taken. If we needs must fight, we
+will do it like men driven desperate. Never was there a greater
+peril than that I am now in. Time, at its own pleasure, will untie
+this knot; or Destiny, if there is one, determine the event.
+The game I play is so high, one cannot contemplate the issue with
+cold blood. Pray for the return of my good luck."--Two days hence,
+the poor young Kur-Baiern, deaf to the French seductions and
+exertions, which were intense, had signed his "Peace of Fussen"
+(22d April 1745),--a finale to France on the German Field, as may
+be feared! The other Fragments we will give a little farther on.
+
+Friedrich had left Berlin for Silesia March 15th; rather sooner
+than he counted on,--Old Leopold pleading to be let home.
+At Glogau, at Breslau, there had been the due inspecting:
+Friedrich got to Neisse on the 23d (Bathyani just stirring in that
+Bavarian Business, Vilshofen and the Hessians close ahead); and on
+the 27th, had dismissed Old Leopold, with thanks and sympathies,--
+sent him home, "to recover his health." Leopold's health is
+probably suffering; but his heart and spirits still more. Poor old
+man, he has just lost--the other week, "5th February" last--his
+poor old Wife, at Dessau; and is broken down with grief. The soft
+silk lining of his hard Existence, in all parts of it, is torn
+away. Apothecary Fos's Daughter, Reich's Princess, Princess of
+Dessau, called by whatever name, she had been the truest of Wives;
+"used to attend him in all his Campaigns, for above fifty years
+back." "Gone, now, forever gone!"--Old Leopold had wells of strange
+sorrow in the rugged heart of him,--sorrow, and still better
+things,--which he does not wear on his sleeve. Here is an incident
+I never can forget;--dating twelve or thirteen years ago (as is
+computable), middle of July, 1732.
+
+"Louisa, Leopold's eldest Daughter, Wife of Victor Leopold,
+reigning Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg, lay dying of a decline."
+Still only twenty-three, poor Lady, though married seven years ago;
+--the end now evidently drawing nigh. "A few days before her
+death,--perhaps some attendant sorrowfully asking, 'Can we do
+nothing, then?'--she was heard to say, 'If I could see my Father at
+the head of his Regiment, yet once!'"--Halle, where the Regiment
+lies, is some thirty or more miles off; and King Friedrioh Wilhelm,
+I suppose, would have to be written to:--Leopold was ready the
+soonest possible; and, "at a set hour, marched, in all pomp, with
+banner flying, music playiug, into the SCHLOSS-HOF (Palace Court)
+of Bernburg; and did the due salutations and manoeuvrings,--his
+poor Daughter sitting at her window, till they ended;"--figure
+them, the last glitter of those muskets, the last wail of that
+band-music!--"The Regiment was then marched to the Waisenhaus
+(ORPHAN-HOUSE), where the common men were treated with bread and
+beer; all the Officers dining at the Prince's Table. All the
+Officers, except Leopold alone, who stole away out of the crowd;
+sat himself upon the balustrade of the Saale Bridge, and wept into
+the river." [LEBEN (12mo; not Rannft's, but Anonymous like his),
+p. 234 n.]--Leopold is now on the edge of seventy; ready to think
+all is finished with him. Perhaps not quite, my tough old friend;
+recover yourself a little, and we shall see!
+
+Old Leopold is hardly home at Dessau, when new Pandour Tempests,
+tides of ravaging War, again come beating against the Giant
+Mountains, pouring through all passes; from utmost Jablunka,
+westward by Jagerndorf to Glatz, huge influx of wild riding hordes,
+each with some support of Austrian grenadiers, cannoniers;
+threatening to submerge Silesia. Precursors, Friedrich need not
+doubt, of a strenuous regular attempt that way, Hungarian Majesty's
+fixed intention, hope and determination is, To expel him
+straightway from Silesia. Her Patent circulates, these three
+months; calling on all men to take note of that fixed fact,
+especially on all Silesian men to note it well, and shift their
+allegiance accordingly. Silesian men, in great majority,--our
+friend the Mayor of Landshut, for example?--are believed to have no
+inclination towards change: and whoever has, had clearly better not
+show any till he see! [In Ranke (iii. 234), there is vestige of
+some intended "voluntary subscription by the common people of
+Glatz," for Friedrich's behoof;--contrariwise, in Orlich (ii. 380,
+"6th February, 1745," from the Dessau Archives), notice of one
+individual, suspected of stirring for Austria, whom "you are to put
+under lock and key;"--but he runs off, and has no successor, that I
+hear of.]--
+
+Friedrich's thousand-fold preliminary orderings, movements,
+rearrangings in his Army matters, must not detain us here;--still
+less his dealings with the Pandour element, which is troublesome,
+rather than dangerous. Vigilance, wise swift determination, valor
+drilled to its work, can deal with phenomena of that nature, though
+never so furious and innumerable. Not a cheering service for
+drilled valor, but a very needful one. Continual bickerings and
+skirmishings fell out, sometimes rising to sharp fight on the small
+scale:--Austrian grenadiers with cannon are on that Height to left,
+and also on this to right, meaning to cut off our march;
+the difficult landscape furnished out, far and wide, with Pandour
+companies in position: you must clash in, my Burschen; seize me
+that cannon-battery yonder; master such and such a post,--there is
+the heart of all that network of armed doggery; slit asunder that,
+the network wholly will tumble over the Hills again. Which is
+always done, on the part of the Prussian Burschen; though sometimes
+not, without difficulty.--His Majesty is forming Magazines at
+Neisse, Brieg, and the principal Fortresses in those parts;
+driving on all manner of preparations at the rapidest rate of
+speed, and looking with his own eyes into everything. The regiments
+are about what we may call complete, arithmetically and otherwise;
+the cavalry show good perfection in their new mode of manoeuvring;
+--it is to be hoped the Fighting Apparatus generally will give fair
+account of itself when the time comes. Our one anchor of hope, as
+now more and more appears.
+
+On the Pandour element he first tried (under General Hautcharmoi,
+with Winterfeld as chief active hand) a direct outburst or two,
+with a view to slash them home at once. But findiug that it was of
+no use, as they always reappeared in new multitudes, he renounced
+that; took to calling in his remoter outposts; and, except where
+Magazines or the like remained to be cared for, let the Pandours
+baffle about, checked only by the fortified Towns, and more and
+more submerge the Hill Country. Prince Karl, to be expected in the
+form of lion, mysteriously uncertain on which side coming to invade
+us,--he, and not the innumerable weasel kind, is our important
+matter! By the end of April (news of the PEACE OF FUSSEN coming
+withal), Friedrich had quitted Neisse; lay cantoned, in Neisse
+Valley (between Frankenstein and Patschkau, "able to assemble in
+forty-eight hours"); studying, with his whole strength, to be ready
+for the mysterious Prince Karl, on whatever side he might arrive;
+--and disregarding the Pandours in comparison.
+
+The points of inrush, the tideways of these Pandour Deluges seem to
+be mainly three. Direct through the Jablunka, upon Ratibor Country,
+is the first and chief; less direct (partly supplied by REFLUENCES
+from Ratibor, when Ratibor is found not to answer), a second
+disembogues by Jagerndorf; a third, the westernmost, by Landshut.
+Three main ingresses: at each of which there fall out little
+Fights; which are still celebrated in the Prussian Books, and
+indeed well deserve reading by soldiers that would know their
+trade. In the Ratibor parts, the invasive leader is a General
+Karoly, with 12,000 under him, who are the wildest horde of all:
+"Karoly lodges in a wood: for himself there is a tent;
+his companions sleep under trees, or under the open sky, by the
+edge of morasses." [Ranke, iii. 244.] It was against this Karoly
+and his horde that Hautcharmoi's little expedition, or express
+attacking party to drive them home again, was shot out (8th-2lst
+April). Which did its work very prettily; Winterfeld, chief hand in
+it, crowning the matter by a "Fight of Wurbitz," [Orlich, ii. 136
+(21st April).]--where Winterfeld, cutting the taproot, in his usual
+electric way, tumbles Karoly quite INTO the morasses, and clears
+the country of him for a time. For a time; though for a time only;
+--Karoly or others returning in a week or two, to a still higher
+extent of thousands; mischievous as ever in those Ratibor-Namslau
+countries. Upon which, Friedrich, finding this an endless business,
+and nothing like the most important, gives it up for the present;
+calls in his remoter detachments; has his Magazines carted home to
+the Fortress Towns,--Karoly trying, once or so, to hinder in that
+operation, but only again getting his crown broken. ["Fight of
+Mocker," May 4th (Orlich, ii. 141).] Or if carting be too
+difficult, still do not waste your Magazine:--Margraf Karl, for
+instance, is ordered to Jagerndorf with his Detachment, "to eat the
+Magazine;" hungry Pandours looking on, till he finish. On which
+occasion a renowned little Fight took place (Fight of Neustadt, or
+of Jagerndorf-Neustadt), as shall be mentioned farther on.
+
+So that, for certain weeks to come, the Tolpatcheries had free
+course, in those Frontier parts; and were left to rove about, under
+check only of the Garrison Towns; Friedrich being obliged to look
+elsewhere after higher perils, which were now coming in view.
+In which favorable circumstances, Karoly and Consorts did, at last,
+make one stroke in those Ratibor countries; that of Kosel, which
+was greatly consolatory. [26th May, 1743 (Orlich, ii. 156-158).] 
+"By treachery of an Ensign who had deserted to them [provoked by
+rigor of discipline, or some intolerable thing], they glided
+stealthily, one night, across the ditches, into Kosel" (a half-
+fortified place, Prussian works only half finished): which, being
+the Key of the Oder in those parts, they reckoned a glorious
+conquest; of good omen and worthy of TE-DEUMS at Vienna. And they
+did eagerly, without the least molestation, labor to complete the
+Prussian works at Kosel: "One garrison already ours!"--which was
+not had from them without battering (and I believe, burning), when
+General von Nassau came to inquire after it; in Autumn next.
+
+Friedrich had always hoped that the Saxons, who are not yet in
+declared War with him, though bound by Treaty to assist the Queen
+of Hungary under certain conditions, would not venture on actual
+Invasion of his Territories; but in this, as readers anticipate,
+Friedrich finds himself mistaken. Weissenfels is hastening from the
+Leitmeritz northwestern quarter, where he has wintered, to join
+Prince Karl, who is gathering himself from Olmutz and his
+southeastern home region; their full intention is to invade Silesia
+together, and they hope now at length to make an end of Friedrich
+and it. These Pandour hordes, supported by the necessary grenadiers
+and cannoniers, are sent as vanguard; these cannot themselves beat
+him; but they may induce him (which they do not) to divide his
+Force; they may, in part, burn him away as by slow fire, after
+which he will be the easier to beat. Instead of which, Friedrich,
+leaving the Pandours to their luck, lies concentrated in Neisse
+Valley; watching, with all his faculties, Prince Karl's own advent
+(coming on like Fate, indubitable, yet involved in mysteries
+hitherto); and is perilously sensible that only in giving that a
+good reception is there any hope left him.
+
+Prince Karl "who arrived in Olmutz April 30th," commands in chief
+again,--saddened, poor man, by the loss of his young Wife, in
+December last; willing to still his grief in action for the cause
+SHE loved;--but old Traun is not with him this year: which is a
+still more material circumstance. Traun is to go this year, under
+cloak not of Prince Karl, but of Grand-Duke Franz, to clear those
+Frankfurt Countries for the KAISERWAHL and him. Prince Conti lies
+there, with his famous "Middle-Rhine Army" (D'Ahremberg, from the
+western parts, not nearly so diligent upon him as one could wish);
+and must, at all rates, be cleared away. Traun, taking command of
+Bathyani's Army (now that it has finished the Bavarian job), is
+preparing to push down upon Conti, while Bathyani (who is to
+supersede the laggard D'Ahremberg) shall push vigorously up;--and
+before summer is over, we shall hear of Traun again, and Conti will
+have heard!--
+
+Friedrich's indignation, on learning that the Saxons were actually
+on march, and gradually that they intended to invade him, was
+great; and the whole matter is portentously enigmatic to him, as he
+lies vigilant in Neisse Valley, waiting on the When and the How.
+Indignation;--and yet there is need of caution withal. To be ready
+for events, the Old Dessauer has, as one sure measure, been
+requested to take charge, once more, of a "Camp of Observation" on
+the Saxon Frontier (as of old, in 1741); and has given his consent:
+["April 25th" consents (Orlich, ii. 130).] "Camp of Magdeburg,"
+"Camp of Dieskau;" for it had various names and figures; checkings
+of your hand, then layings of it on, heavier, lighter and again
+heavier, according to one's various READINGS of the Saxon Mystery;
+and we shall hear enough about it, intermittently, till December
+coming: when it ended in a way we shall not forget!--On which take
+this Note:--
+
+"The Camp of Observation was to have begun May 1st; did begin
+somewhat later, 'near Magdeburg,' not too close on the Frontier,
+nor in too alarming strength; was reinforced to about 30,000;
+in which state [middle of August] it stept forward to Wieskau, then
+to Dieskau, close on the Saxon Border; and became,--with a Saxon
+Camp lying close opposite, and War formally threatened, or almost
+declared, on Saxony by Friedrich,--an alarmingly serious matter.
+Friedrich, however, again checked his hand; and did not consummate
+till November-December. But did then consummate; greatly against
+his will; and in a way flamingly visible to all men!"
+[Orlich, ii. 130, 209, 210: <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> ii. 1224-1226; i. 1117.]
+
+Friedrich's own incidental utterances (what more we have of
+Fractions from the Podewils Letters), in such portentous aspect of
+affairs, may now be worth giving. It is not now to Jordan that he
+writes, gayly unbosoming himself, as in the First War,--poor Jordan
+lies languishing, these many months; consumptive, too evidently
+dying:--Not to Jordan, this time; nor is the theme "GLOIRE" now,
+but a far different!
+
+
+        FRIEDRICH TO PODEWILS (as before, April-May, 1745).
+
+April 20th or so, Orders are come to Berlin (orders, to Podewils's
+horror at such a thought), Whitherward, should Berlin be assaulted,
+the Official Boards, the Preciosities and household gods are to
+betake themselves:--to Magdeburg, all these, which is an
+impregnable place; to Stettin, the Two Queens and Royal Family, if
+they like it better. Podewils in horror, "hair standing on end,"
+writes thereupon to Eichel, That he hopes the management, "in a
+certain contingency," will be given to Minister Boden; he Podewils,
+with his hair in that posture, being quite unequal to it.
+Friedrich answers:--
+
+"APRIL 26th. ... 'I can understand how you are getting uneasy, you
+Berliners. I have the most to lose of you all; but I am quiet, and
+prepared for events. If the Saxons take part,' as they surely will,
+'in the Invasion of Silesia, and we beat them, I am determined to
+plunge into Saxony. For great maladies, there need great remedies.
+Either I will maintain my all, or else lose my all. [Hear it,
+friend; and understand it,--with hair lying flat!] It is true, the
+disaffection of the Russian Court, on such trifling grounds, was
+not to be expected; and great misfortune can befall us.
+Well; a year or two sooner, a year or two later,--it is not worth
+one's while to bother about the very worst. If things take the
+better turn, our condition will be surer and firmer than it was
+before. If we have nothing to reproach ourselves with, neither need
+we fret and plague ourselves about bad events, which can happen to
+any man.'--'I am causing despatch a secret Order for Boden [on YOU
+know what], which you will not deliver him till I give sign.'"--
+On hearing of the Peace of Fussen, perhaps a day or so later,
+Friedrich again writes:--
+
+"APRIL [no distinct date; Neisse still? QUITS Neisse, April 28th].
+... Peace of Fussen, Bavaria turned against me? 'I can say nothing
+to it,--except, There has come what had to come. To me remains only
+to possess myself in patience. If all alliances, resources, and
+negotiations fail, and all conjunctures go against me, I prefer to
+perish with honor, rather than lead an inglorious life deprived of
+all dignity. My ambition whispers me that I have done more than
+another to the building up of my House, and have played a
+distinguished part among the crowned heads of Europe. To maintain
+myself there, has become as it were a personal duty; which I will
+fulfil at the expense of my happiness and my life. I have no choice
+left: I will maintain my power, or it may go to ruin, and the
+Prussian name be buried under it. If the enemy attempt anything
+upon us, we will either beat him, or we will all be hewed to
+pieces, for the sake of our Country, and the renown of Brandenburg.
+No other counsel can I listen to.'"
+
+SAME LETTER, OR ANOTHER? (Herr Ranke having his caprices!) ...
+"You are a good man, my Podewils, and do what can be expected of
+you" (Podewils has been apologizing for his terrors; and referring
+hopefully "to Providence"): "Perform faithfully the given work on
+your side, as I on mine; for the rest, let what you call
+'Providence' decide as it likes [UNE PROVIDENCE AVEUGLE? Ranke, who
+alone knows, gives "BLINDE VORSEHUNG." What an utterance, on the
+part of this little Titan! Consider it as exceptional with him,
+unusual, accidental to the hard moment, and perhaps not so impious
+as it looks!]--Neither our prudence nor our courage shall be liable
+to blame; but only circumstances that would not favor us. ...
+
+"I prepare myself for every event. Fortune may be kind or be
+unkind, it shall neither dishearten me nor uplift me. If I am to
+perish, let it be with honor, and sword in hand. What the issue is
+to be-- Well, what pleases Heaven, or the Other Party (J'AI JETE LE
+BONNET PAR DESSUS LES MOULINS)! Adieu, my dear Podewils; become as
+good a philosopher as you are a politician; and learn from a man
+who does not go to Elsner's Preaching [fashionable at the time],
+that one must oppose to ill fortune a brow of iron; and, during
+this life, renounce all happiness, all acquisitions, possessions
+and lying shows, none of which will follow us beyond the grave."
+[Ranke, iii. pp. 238-241.]
+
+"By what points the Austrian-Saxon Armament will come through upon
+us? Together will it be, or separately? Saxons from the Lausitz,
+Austrians from Bohmen, enclosing us between two fires?"--were
+enigmatic questions with Friedrich; and the Saxons especially are
+an enigma. But that come they will, that these Pandours are their
+preliminary veiling-apparatus as usual, is evident to him; and that
+he must not spend himself upon Pandours; but coalesce, and lie
+ready for the main wrestle. So that from April 28th, as above
+noticed, Friedrich has gone into cantonments, some way up the
+Neisse Valley, westward of Neisse Town; and is calling in his
+outposts, his detachments; emptying his Frontier Magazines;--
+abandoning his Upper-Silesian Frontier more and more, and in the
+end altogether, to the Pandour hordes; a small matter they,
+compared to the grand Invasion which is coming on. Here, with
+shiftings up the Neisse Valley, he lies till the end of May;
+watching Argus-like, and scanning with every faculty the Austrian-
+Saxon motions and intentions, until at length they become clear to
+him, and we shall see how he deals with them.
+
+His own lodging, or head-quarter, most of this time (4th May-27th
+May), is in the pleasant Abbey of Camenz (mythic scene of that
+BAUMGARTEN-SKIRMISH business, in the First Silesian War). He has
+excellent Tobias Stusche for company in leisure hours; and the
+outlook of bright Spring all round him, flowering into gorgeous
+Summer, as he hurries about on his many occasions, not of an
+idyllic nature. [Orlich, ii. 139; Ranke, iii. 242-249.] But his
+Army is getting into excellent completeness of number, health,
+equipment, and altogether such a spirit as he could wish. May 22d,
+here is another snatch from some Note to Podewils, from this balmy
+Locality, potential with such explosions of another kind.
+CAMENZ, MAY 22d. ... "The Enemies are making movements; but nothing
+like enough as yet for our guessing their designs. Till we see,
+therefore, the thunder lies quiet in us (LA FOUDRE REPOSE EN MES
+MAINS). Ah, could we but have a Day like that May Eleventh!"
+[Ranke, iii. 248 n.]
+
+What "that May Eleventh" is or was? Readers are curious to know;
+especially English readers, who guess FONTENOY. And Historic Art,
+if she were strict, would decline to inform them at any length;
+for really the thing is no better than a "Victory on the Scamander,
+and a Siege of Pekin" (as a certain observer did afterwards define
+it), in reference to the matter now on hand! Well, Pharsalia,
+Arbela, the Scamander, Armageddon, and so many Battles and
+Victories being luminous, by study, to cultivated Englishmen, and
+one's own Fontenoy such a mystery and riddle,--Art, after
+consideration, reluctantly consents to be indulgent; will produce
+from her Paper Imbroglios a slight Piece on the subject, and print
+instead of burning.
+
+
+
+                         Chapter VIII.
+
+    THE MARTIAL BOY AND HIS ENGLISH versus THE LAWS 0F NATURE.
+
+"Glorious Campaign in the Netherlands, Siege of Tournay, final ruin
+of the Dutch Barrier!" this is the French program for Season 1745,
+--no Belleisle to contradict it; Belleisle secure at Windsor, who
+might have leant more towards German enterprises. And to this his
+Britannic Majesty (small gain to him from that adroitness in the
+Harz, last winter!) has to make front. And is strenuously doing so,
+by all methods; especially by heroic expenditure of money, and
+ditto exposure of his Martial Boy. Poor old Wade, last year,--
+perhaps Wade did suffer, as he alleged, from "want of sufficient
+authority in that mixed Army"? Well, here is a Prince of the Blood,
+Royal Highness of Cumberland, to command in chief. With a Konigseck
+to dry-nurse him, may not Royal Highness, luck favoring, do very
+well? Luck did not favor; Britannic Majesty, neither in the
+Netherlands over seas, nor at home (strange new domestic wool, of a
+tarry HIGHLAND nature, being thrown him to card, on the sudden!),
+made a good Campaign, but a bad. And again a bad (1746) and again
+(1747), ever again, till he pleased to cease altogether. Of which
+distressing objects we propose that the following one glimpse be
+our last.
+
+
+               BATTLE OF FONTENOY (11th May, 1745).
+
+... "In the end of April, Marechal de Saxe, now become very famous
+for his sieges in the Netherlands, opened trenches before Tournay;
+King Louis, with his Dauphin, not to speak of mistresses, play-
+actors and cookery apparatus (in wagons innumerable), hastens to be
+there. A fighting Army, say of 70,000, besides the garrisons; and
+great things, it is expected, will be done; Tournay, in spite of
+strong works and Dutch garrison of 9,000, to be taken in the first
+place.
+
+"Of the Siege, which was difficult and ardent, we will remember
+nothing, except the mischance that befell a certain 'Marquis de
+Talleyrand' and his men, in the trenches, one night. Night of the
+8th-9th May, by carelessness of somebody, a spark got into the
+Marquis's powder, two powder-barrels that there were; and, with
+horrible crash, sent eighty men, Marquis Talleyrand and Engineer
+Du Mazis among them, aloft into the other world; raining down their
+limbs into the covered way, where the Dutch were very inhuman to
+them, and provoked us to retaliate. [Espagnac, ii. 27.] Du Mazis I
+do not know; but Marquis de Talleyrand turns out, on study of the
+French Peerages, to be Uncle of a lame little Boy, who became Right
+Reverend Tallyrand under singular conditions, and has made the name
+very current in after-times!--
+
+"Hearing of this Siege, the Duke of Cumberland hastened over from
+England, with intent to raise the same. Mustered his 'Allied Army'
+(once called 'Pragmatic'),--self at the head of it; old Count
+Konigseck, who was NOT burnt at Chotusitz, commanding the small
+Austrian quota [Austrians mainly are gone laggarding with
+D'Ahremberg up the Rhine]; and a Prince of Waldeck the Dutch,--on
+the plain of Anderlecht near Brussels, May 4th; [Anonymous,
+<italic> Life of Cumberland, <end italic> p. 180; Espagnac, ii.
+26.] and found all things tolerably complete. Upon which,
+straightway, his Royal Highness, 60,000 strong let us say, set
+forth; by slowish marches, and a route somewhat leftward of the
+great Tournay Road [no place on it, except perhaps STEENKERKE, ever
+heard of by an English reader]; and on Sunday, 9th May, [Espagnac,
+ii. 27.] precisely on the morrow after poor Talleyrand had gone
+aloft, reached certain final Villages: Vezon, Maubray, where he
+encamps, Briffoeil to rear; Camp looking towards Tournay and the
+setting sun,--with Fontenoy short way ahead, and Antoine to left of
+it, and Barry with its Woods to right:--small peaceable Villages,
+which become famous in the Newspapers shortly after. [Patch of Map
+at p. 440.] Royal Highness, resting here at Vezon, is but some six
+or seven miles from Tournay; in low undulating Country, woody here
+and there, not without threads of running water, and with frequent
+Villages and their adjuncts: the part of it now interesting to us
+lies all between the Brussels-Tournay Road and the Scheld River,--
+all in immediate front of his Royal Highness,--to southeastward
+from beleaguered Tournay, where said Road and River intersect.
+How shall he make some impression on the Siege of Tournay?
+That is now the question; and his Royal Highness struggles to
+manoeuvre accordingly.
+
+Marechal de Saxe, whose habit is much that of vigilance,
+forethought, sagacious precaution, singular in so dissolute a man,
+has neglected nothing on this occasion. He knows every foot of the
+ground, having sieged here, in his boyhood, once before. Leaving
+the siege-trenches at Tournay, under charge of a ten or fifteen
+thousand, he has taken camp here; still with superior force (56,000
+as they count, Royal Highness being only 50,000 ranked), barring
+Royal Highness's way. Tournay, or at least the Marechal's trenches
+there, are on the right bank of the Scheld; which flows from
+southeast, securing all on that hand. The broad Brussels Highway
+comes in to him from the east;--north of that he has nothing to
+fear, the ground being cut with bogs; no getting through upon him,
+that way, to Tournay and what he calls the 'Under Scheld.'
+The 'Upper Scheld' too, avail them nothing. There is only that
+triangle to the southeast, between Road and River, where the Enemy
+is now manoeuvring in front of him, from which damage can well
+come; and he has done his best to be secure there. Four villages or
+hamlets, close to the Scheld and onwards to the Great Road,--
+Antoine, Fontenoy, Barry, Ramecroix, with their lanes and boscages,
+--make a kind of circular base to his triangle; base of some six or
+eight miles; with hollows in it, brooks, and northward a
+considerable Wood [BOIS DE BARRY, enveloping Barry and Ramecroix,
+which do not prove of much interest to us, though the BOIS does of
+a good deal]. In and before each of those villages are posts and
+defences; in Antoine and Fontenoy elaborate redoubts, batteries,
+redans connecting: in the Wood (BOIS DE BARRY), an abattis, or wall
+of felled trees, as well as cannon; and at the point of the Wood,
+well within double range of Fontenoy, is a Redoubt, called of Eu
+(REDOUTE D'EU, from the regiment occupying it), which will much
+concern his Royal Highness and us. Saxe has a hundred pieces of
+cannon [say the English, which is correct], consummately disposed
+along this space; no ingress possible anywhere, except through the
+cannon's throat; torrents of fire and cross-fire playing on you.
+He is armed to the teeth, as they say; and has his 56,000 arranged
+according to the best rules of tactics, behind this murderous line
+of works. If his Royal Highness think of breaking in, he may count
+on a very warm reception indeed.
+
+"Saxe is only afraid his Royal Highness will not. Outside of these
+lines, with a 50,000 dashing fiercely round us, under any kind of
+leading; pouncing on our convoys; harassing and sieging US,--our
+siege of Toumay were a sad outlook. And this is old Austrian
+Konigseck's opinion, too; though, they say, Waldeck and the Dutch
+(impetuous in theory at least) opined otherwise, and strengthened
+Royal Highness's view. Two young men against one old: 'Be it so,
+then!' His Royal Highness, resolute for getting in, manoeuvres and
+investigates, all Monday 10th; his cannon is not to arrive
+completely till night; otherwise he would be for breaking in at
+once: a fearless young man, fearless as ever his poor Father was;
+certainly a man SANS PEUY, this one too; whether of much AVIS, we
+shall see anon.
+
+"Tuesday morning early, 11th May, 1745, cannon being up, and
+dispositions made, his Royal Highness sallies out; sees his men
+taking their ground: Dutch and Austrians to the left, chiefly
+opposite Antoine; English, with some Hanoverians, in the centre and
+to the right; infantry in front, facing Fontenoy, cavalry to rear
+flanking the Wood of Barry,--Konigseck, Ligonier and others able,
+assisting to plant them advantageously; cannon going, on both
+sides, the while; radiant enthusiasm, SANS PEUR ET SANS AVIS,
+looking from his Royal Highness's face. He has been on horseback
+since two in the morning; cannon started thundering between five
+and six,--has killed chivalrous Grammont over yonder (the Grammont
+of Dettingen), almost at the first volley. And now about the time
+when ploughers breakfast (eight A.M., no ploughing hereabouts
+to-day!), begins the attack, simultaneously or in swift succession,
+on the various batteries which it will be necessary to attack
+and storm.
+
+"The attacks took place; but none of them succeeded. Dutch and
+Austrians, on the extreme left, were to have stormed Antoine by the
+edge of the River; that was their main task; right skirt of them to
+help US meanwhile with Fontenoy. And they advanced, accordingly;
+but found the shot from Antoine too fierce: especially when a
+subsidiary battery opened from across the River, and took them in
+flank, the Dutch and Austrians felt astonished; and hastily drew
+aside, under some sheltering mound or earthwork they had found for
+themselves, or prudently thrown up the night before. There, under
+their earthwork, stood the Dutch and Austrians; patiently expecting
+a fitter time,--which indeed never occurred; for always, the
+instant they drew out, the batteries from Antoine, and from across
+the River, instantly opened upon them, and they had to draw in
+again. So that they stood there, in a manner, all day; and so to
+speak did nothing but patiently expect when it should be time to
+run. For which they were loudly censured, and deservedly.
+Antoine is and remains a total failure on the part of the Dutch
+and Austrians.
+
+"Royal Highness in person, with his English, was to attack
+Fontenoy;--and is doing so, by battery and storm, at various
+points; with emphasis, though without result. As preliminary, at an
+early stage he had sent forward on the right, by the Wood of Barry,
+a Brigadier Ingoldsby 'with Semple's Highlanders' and other force,
+to silence 'that redoubt yonder at the point of the Wood,'--
+redoubt, fort, or whatever it be (famous REDOUTE D'EU, as it turned
+out!),--which guards Fontenoy to north, and will take us in flank,
+nay in rear, as we storm the cannon of the Village.
+Ingoldsby, speed imperative on him, pushed into the Wood; found
+French light-troops ('God knows how many of them!') prowling about
+there; found the Redoubt a terribly strong thing, with ditch,
+drawbridge, what not; spent thirty or forty of his Highlanders, in
+some frantic attempt on it by rule of thumb;--and found 'He would
+need artillery' and other things. In short, Ingoldsby, hasten what
+he might, could not perfect the preparations to his mind, had to
+wait for this and for that; and did not storm the Redoubt d'Eu at
+all; but hung fire, in an unaccountable manner. For which he had to
+answer (to Court-Martial, still more to the Newspapers) afterwards;
+and prove that it was misfortune merely, or misfortune and
+stupidity combined. Too evident, the REDOUTE D'EU was not taken,
+then or thenceforth; which might have proved the saving of the
+whole affair, could Ingoldsby have managed it. Royal Highness
+attacked Fontenoy, and re-attacked, furiously, thrice over; and had
+to desist, and find Fontenoy impossible on those terms.
+
+"Here is a piece of work. Repulsed at all those points; and on the
+left and on the right, no spirit visible but what deserves repulse!
+His Royal Highness blazes into resplendent PLATT-DEUTSCH rage, what
+we may call spiritual white-heat, a man SANS PEUR at any rate, and
+pretty much SANS AVIS; decides that he must and will be through
+those lines, if it please God; that he will not be repulsed at his
+part of the attack, not he for one; but will plunge through, by
+what gap there is [900 yards Voltaire measures it
+[<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xxviii. 150 (SIECLE DE LOUIS
+QUINZE, c. xv. "BATAILLE DE FONTENOI,"--elaborately exact on all
+sucb points).]] between Fontenoy and that Redoubt with its laggard
+Ingoldsby; and see what the French interior is like! He rallies
+rapidly, rearranges; forms himself in thin column or columns [three
+of them, I think,--which gradually got crushed into one, as they
+advanced, under caunon-shot on both hands],--wheeling his left
+round, to be rear, his right to be head of said column or columns.
+In column, the cannon-shot from Fontenoy on the left, and Redoubt
+d'Eu on our right, will tell less on us; and between these two
+death-dealing localities, by the hollowest, least shelterless way
+discoverable, we mean to penetrate: (Forward, my men, steady and
+swift, till we are through the shot-range, and find men to grapple
+with, instead of case-shot and projectile iron!' Marechal de Saxe
+owned afterwards, 'He should have put an additional redoubt in that
+place, but he did not think any Army would try such a thing'
+(cannon batteries playing on each hand at 400 yards distance);--nor
+has any Army since or before!
+
+"These columns advance, however; through bushy hollows, water-
+courses, through what defiles or hollowest grounds there are;
+endure the cannon-shot, while they must; trailing their own heavy
+guns by hand, and occasionally blasting out of them where the
+ground favors;--and do, with indignant patience, wind themselves
+through, pretty much beyond direct shot-range of either d'Eu or
+Fontenoy. And have actually got into the interior mystery of the
+French Line of Battle,--which is not a little astonished to see
+them there! It is over a kind of blunt ridge, or rising ground,
+that they are coming: on the crown of this rising ground, the
+French regiment fronting it (GARDES FRANCAISES as it chanced to be)
+notices, with surprise, field-cannon pointed the wrong way;
+actual British artillery unaccountably showing itself there.
+Regiment of GARDES rushes up to seize said field-pieces: but, on
+the summit, perceives with amazement that it cannot; that a heavy
+volley of musketry blazes into it (killing sixty men); that it will
+have to rush back again, and report progress: Huge British force,
+of unknown extent, is readjusting itself into column there, and
+will be upon us on the instant. Here is news!
+
+"News true enough. The head of the English column comes to sight,
+over the rising ground, close by: their officers doff their hats,
+politely saluting ours, who return the civility: was ever such
+politeness seen before? It is a fact; and among the memorablest of
+this Battle. Nay a certain English Officer of mark--Lord Charles
+Hay the name of him, valued surely in the annals of the Hay and
+Tweeddale House--steps forward from the ranks, as if wishing
+something. Towards whom [says the accurate Espagnac] Marquis
+d'Auteroche, grenadier-lieutenant, with air of polite
+interrogation, not knowing what he meant, made a step or two:
+'Monsieur,' said Lord Charles (LORD CHARLES-HAY), 'bid your people
+fire (FAITES TIRER VOS GENS)!' 'NON, MONSIEUR, NOUS NE TIRONS
+JAMAIS LES PREMIERS (We never fire first).' [Espagnac, ii. 60 (of
+the ORIGINAL, Toulouse, 1789); ii. 48 of the German Translation
+(Leipzig, 1774), our usual reference. Voltaire, endlessly informed
+upon details this time, is equally express: "MILORD CHARLES HAY,
+CAPITAINE AUX GARDES ANGLAISES, CRIA: 'MESSIEURS DES GARDES
+FRANCAISES, TIREZ!' To which Count d'Auteroche with a loud voice
+answered" &c. (<italic> OEuvres, vol.  xxviii. p. 155.) See also
+<italic> Souvenirs du Marquis de Valfons <end italic> (edited by a
+Grand-Nephew, Paris, 1860), p. 151;--a poor, considerably noisy and
+unclean little Book; which proves unexpectedly worth looking at, in
+regard to some of those poor Battles and personages and
+occurrences: the Bohemian Belleisle-Broglio part, to my regret, if
+to no other person's, has been omitted, as extinct, or
+undecipherable by the Grand-Nephew.] After YOU, Sirs! Is not this a
+bit of modern chivalry? A supreme politeness in that sniffing
+pococurante kind; probably the highest point (or lowest) it ever
+went to. Which I have often thought of."
+
+It is almost pity to disturb an elegant Historical Passage of this
+kind, circulating round the world, in some glory, for a century
+past: but there has a small irrefragable Document come to me, which
+modifies it a good deal, and reduces matters to the business form.
+Lord Charles Hay, "Lieutenant-Colonel," practical Head, "of the
+First Regiment of Foot-guards," wrote, about three weeks after (or
+dictated in sad spelling, not himself able to write for wounds), a
+Letter to his Brother, of which here is an Excerpt at first hand,
+with only the spelling altered: ... "It was our Regiment that
+attacked the French Guards: and when we came within twenty or
+thirty paces of them, I advanced before our Regiment; drank to them
+[to the French, from the pocket-pistol one carries on such
+occasions], and told them that we were the English Guards, and
+hoped that they would stand till we came quite up to them, and not
+swim the Scheld as they did the Mayn at Dettingen [shameful THIRD-
+BRIDGE, not of wood, though carpeted with blue cloth there]!
+Upon which I immediately turned about to our own Regiment;
+speeched them, and made them huzza,"--I hope with a will.
+"An Officer [d'Auteroche] came out of the ranks, and tried to make
+his men huzza; however, there were not above three or four in their
+Brigade that did." ["Ath, May ye 20th, o.s." (to John, Fourth
+Marquis of Tweeddale, last "Secretary of State for Scotland," and a
+man of figure in his day): Letter is at Yester House, East Lothian;
+Excerpt PENES ME.] ...
+
+Very poor counter-huzza. And not the least whisper of that sublime
+"After you, Sirs!" but rather, in confused form, of quite the
+reverse; Hay having been himself fired into ("fire had begun on my
+left;" Hay totally ignorant on which side first),--fired into,
+rather feebly, and wounded by those D'Auteroche people, while he
+was still advancing with shouldered arms;--upon which, and not till
+which, he did give it them: in liberal dose; and quite blew them
+off the ground, for that day. From all which, one has to infer,
+That the mutual salutation by hat was probably a fact; that, for
+certain, there was some slight preliminary talk and gesticulation,
+but in the Homeric style, by no means in the Espagnac-French,--
+not chivalrous epigram at all, mere rough banter, and what is
+called "chaffing;"--and in short, that the French Mess-rooms (with
+their eloquent talent that way) had rounded off the thing into the
+current epigrammatic redaction; the authentic business-form of it
+being ruggedly what is now given. Let our Manuscript proceed.
+
+"D'Auteroche declining the first fire,"--or accepting it, if ever
+offered, nobody can say,--"the three Guards Regiments, Lord
+Charles's on the right, give it him hot and heavy, 'tremendous
+rolling fire;' so that D'Auteroche, responding more or less, cannot
+stand it; but has at once to rustle into discontinuity, he and his,
+and roll rapidly out of the way. And the British Column advances,
+steadily, terribly, hurling back all opposition from it; deeper and
+deeper into the interior mysteries of the French Host; blasting its
+way with gunpowder;--in a magnificent manner. A compact Column,
+slowly advancing,--apparently of some 16,000 foot.
+Pauses, readjusts itself a little, when not meddled with;
+when meddled with, has cannon, has rolling fire,--delivers from it,
+in fact, on both hands such a torrent of deadly continuous fire as
+was rarely seen before or since. 'FEU INFERNAL,' the French call
+it. The French make vehement resistance. Battalions, squadrons,
+regiment after regiment, charge madly on this terrible Column; but
+rush only on destruction thereby. Regiment This storms in from the
+right, regiment That from the left; have their colonels shot, 'lose
+the half of their people;' and hastily draw back again, in a
+wrecked condition. The cavalry-horses cannot stand such smoke and
+blazing; nor indeed, I think, can the cavaliers. REGIMENT DU ROI
+rushing on, full gallop, to charge this Column, got one volley from
+it [says Espagnac] which brought to the ground 460 men.
+Natural enough that horses take the bit between their teeth;
+likewise that men take it, and career very madly in such
+circumstances!
+
+MAP Chap. VIII, Book 15, PAGE 440 GOES ABOUT HERE--------
+
+
+"The terrible Column with slow inflexibility advances; cannon (now
+in reversed position) from that Redoubt d'Eu ('Shame on you,
+Ingoldsby!'), and irregular musketry from Fontenoy side, playing
+upon it; defeated regiments making barriers of their dead men and
+firing there; Column always closing its gapped ranks, and girdled
+with insupportable fire. It ought to have taken Fontenoy and
+Redoubt d'Eu, say military men; it ought to have done several
+things! It has now cut the French fairly in two;--and Saxe, who is
+earnestly surveying it a hundred paces ahead, sends word, conjuring
+the King to retire instantly,--across the Scheld, by Calonne Bridge
+and the strong rear-guard there,--who, however, will not. King and
+Dauphin, on horseback both, have stood 'at the Justice (GALLOWS, in
+fact) of our Lady of the Woods,' not stirring much, occasionally
+shifting to a windmill which is still higher,--ye Heavens, with
+what intrepidity, all day!--'a good many country-folk in trees
+close behind them.' Country-folk, I suppose, have by this time seen
+enough, and are copiously making off: but the King will not, though
+things do look dubious.
+
+"In fact, the Battle hangs now upon a hair; the Battle is as good
+as lost, thinks Marechal de Saxe. His battle-lines torn in two in
+that manner, hovering in ragged clouds over the field, what hope is
+there in the Battle? Fontenoy is firing blank, this some time;
+its cannon-balls done. Officers, in Antoine, are about withdrawing
+the artillery,--then again (on new order) replacing it awhile.
+All are looking towards the Scheld Bridge; earnestly entreating his
+Majesty to withdraw. Had the Dutch, at this point of time, broken
+heartily in, as Waldeck was urging them to do, upon the redoubts of
+Antoine; or had his Royal Highness the Duke, for his own behoof,
+possessed due cavalry or artillery to act upon these ragged clouds,
+which hang broken there, very fit for being swept, were there an
+artillery-and-horse besom to do it,--in either of these cases the
+Battle was the Duke's. And a right fiery victory it would have
+been; to make his name famous; and confirm the English in their mad
+method of fighting, like Baresarks or Janizaries rather than
+strategic human creatures. [See, in Busching's <italic> Magazin,
+<end italic> xvi. 169 ("Your illustrious 'Column,' at Fontenoy?
+It was fortuitous, I say; done like janizaries;" and so forth), a
+Criticism worth reading by soldiers.]
+
+"But neither of these contingencies had befallen. The Dutch-
+Austrian wing did evince some wish to get possession of Antoine;
+and drew out a little; but the guns also awoke upon them;
+whereupon the Dutch-Austrians drew in again, thinking the time not
+come. As for the Duke, he had taken with him of cannon a good few;
+but of horse none at all (impossible for horse, unless Fontenoy and
+the Redoubt d'Eu were ours!)--and his horse have been hanging
+about, in the Wood of Barry all this while, uncertain what to do;
+their old Commander being killed withal, and their new a dubitative
+person, and no orders left. The Duke had left no orders; having
+indeed broken in here, in what we called a spiritual white-heat,
+without asking himself much what he would do when in: 'Beat the
+French, knock them to powder if I can!'--Meanwhile the French
+clouds are reassembling a little: Royal Highness too is readjusting
+himself, now got '300 yards ahead of Fontenoy,'--pauses there about
+half an hour, not seeing his way farther.
+
+"During which pause, Duc de Richelieu, famous blackguard man,
+gallops up to the Marechal, gallops rapidly from Marechal to King;
+suggesting, 'were cannon brought AHEAD of this close deep Column,
+might not they shear it into beautiful destruction; and then a
+general charge be made?' So counselled Richelieu: it is said, the
+Jacobite Irishman, Count Lally of the Irish Brigade, was prime
+author of this notion,--a man of tragic notoriety in time coming.
+["Thomas Arthur Lally Comte de Tollendal," patronymically
+"O'MuLALLY of TULLINDALLY" (a place somewhere in Connaught,
+undiscoverable where, not material where): see our dropsical friend
+(in one of his wheeziest states), <italic> King James's Irish
+Army-List <end italic> (Dublin, 1855), pp. 594-600.] Whoever was
+author of it, Marechal de Saxe adopts it eagerly, King Louis
+eagerly: swift it becomes a fact. Universal rally, universal
+simultaneous charge on both flanks of the terrible Column: this it
+might resist, as it has done these two hours past; but cannon
+ahead, shearing gaps through it from end to end, this is what no
+column can resist;--and only perhaps one of Friedrich's columns (if
+even that) with Friedrich's eye upon it, could make its half-right-
+about (QUART DE CONVERSION), turn its side to it, and manoeuvre out
+of it, in such circumstances. The wrathful English column, slit
+into ribbons, can do nothing at manoeuvring; blazes and rages,--
+more and more clearly in vain; collapses by degrees, rolls into
+ribbon-coils, and winds itself out of the field. Not much chased,--
+its cavalry now seeing a job, and issuing from the Wood of Barry to
+cover the retreat. Not much chased;--yet with a loss, they say, in
+all, of 7,000 killed and wounded, and about 2,000 prisoners;
+French loss being under 5,000.
+
+"The Dutch and Austrians had found that the fit time was now come,
+or taken time by the forelock,--their part of the loss, they said,
+was a thousand and odd hundreds. The Battle ended about two o'clock
+of the day; had begun about eight. Tuesday, 11th May, 1745: one of
+the hottest half-day's works I have known. A thing much to be
+meditated by the English mind.--King Louis stept down from the
+Gallows-Hill of Our Lady; and KISSED Marechal de Saxe. Saxe was
+nearly dead of dropsy; could not sit on horseback, except for
+minutes; was carried about in a wicker bed; has had a lead bullet
+in his mouth, all day, to mitigate the intolerable thirst.
+Tournay was soon taken; the Dutch garrison, though strong, and in a
+strong place, making no due debate.
+
+"Royal Highness retired upon Ath and Brussels; hovered about,
+nothing daunted, he or his: 'Dastard fellows, they would not come
+out into the open ground, and try us fairly!' snort indignantly the
+Gazetteers and enlightened Public. [Old Newspapers.]
+Nothing daunted;--but, as it were, did not do anything farther,
+this Campaign; except lose Gand, by negligence VERSUS vigilance,
+and eat his victuals,--till called home by the Rebellion Business,
+in an unexpected manner! Fontenoy was the nearest approach he ever
+made to getting victory in a battle; but a miss too, as they all
+were. He was nothing like so rash, on subsequent occasions; but had
+no better luck; and was beaten in all his battles--except the
+immortal Victory of Culloden alone. Which latter indeed, was it not
+itself (in the Gazetteer mind) a kind of apotheosis, or lifting of
+a man to the immortal gods,--by endless tar-barrels and beer, for
+the time being?
+
+"Old Marechal de Noailles was in this Battle; busy about the
+redans, and proud to see his Saxe do well. Chivalrous Grammont,
+too, as we saw, was there,---killed at the first discharge.
+Prince de Soubise too (not killed); a certain Lord George Sackville
+(hurt slightly,--perhaps had BETTER have been killed!)--and others
+known to us, or that will be known. Army-Surgeon La Mettrie, of
+busy brain, expert with his tourniquets and scalpels, but of wildly
+blusterous heterodox tongue and ways, is thrice-busy in Hospital
+this night,--'English and French all one to you, nay, if anything,
+the English better!' those are the Royal orders:--La Mettrie will
+turn up, in new capacity, still blusterous, at Berlin, by and by.
+
+"The French made immense explosions of rejoicing over this Victory
+of Fontenoy; Voltaire (now a man well at Court) celebrating it in
+prose and verse, to an amazing degree (21,000 copies sold in one
+day); the whole Nation blazing out over it into illuminations, arcs
+of triumph and universal three-times-three:--in short, I think,
+nearly the heartiest National Huzza, loud, deep, long-drawn, that
+the Nation ever gave in like case. Now rather curious to consider,
+at this distance of time. Miraculous Anecdotes, true and not true,
+are many. Not to mention again that surprising offer of the first
+fire to us, what shall we say of the 'two camp-sutlers whom I
+noticed,' English females of the lowest degree; 'one of whom was
+busy slitting the gold-lace from a dead Officer, when a cannon-ball
+came whistling, and shore her head away. Upon which, without sound
+uttered, her neighbor snatched the scissors, and deliberately
+proceeded.' [De Hordt, <italic> Memoires, <end italic> i. 108.
+A FRENCH OFFICER'S ACCOUNT (translated in <italic> Gentleman's
+Magazine, <end italic> 1745; where, pp. 246, 250, 291, 313, &c.,
+are many confused details and speculations on this subject).]
+A deliberate gloomy people;--unconquerable except by French
+prowess, glory to that same!"
+
+Britannic Majesty is not successful this season; Highland
+Rebellions rising on him, and much going awry. He is founding his
+National Debt, poor Majesty; nothing else to speak of. His poor
+Army, fighting never so well in Foreign quarrels,--and generally
+itself standing the brunt, with the co-partners looking on till it
+is time to run (as at Roucoux again next season, and at Lauffeld
+next),--can win nothing but hard knocks and losses. And is defined
+by mankind,--in phraseology which we have heard again since then!
+--as having "the heart of a Lion and the head of an Ass."
+[Old Pamphlets, SOEPIUS.] Portentous to contemplate!--
+
+Cape Breton was besieged this Summer, in a creditable manner;
+and taken. The one real stroke done upon France this Year, or
+indeed (except at sea) throughout the War. "Ruin to their
+Fisheries, and a clear loss of 1,400,000 pounds a year."
+Compared with which all these fine "Victories in Flanders" are a
+bottle of moonshine. This was actually a kind of stroke;--and this,
+one finds, was accomplished, under presidency of a small squadron
+of King's ships, by ('New-England Volunteers," on funds raised by
+subscription, in the way of joint-stock. A shining Colonial feat;
+said to be very perfectly done, both scrip part of it, and fighting
+part; [Adelung, v. 32-35 ("27th June, 1745, after a siege of
+forty-nine days"): see "Gibson, <italic> Journal of the Siege;"
+<end italic>  "Mr. Prince (of the South Church, Boston),
+THANKSGIVING SERMON (price fourpence);" &c. &c.: in the Old
+Newspapers, 1745, 1748, multifarious Notices about it, and then
+about the "repayment" of those excellent "joint-stock" people.]
+--and might have yielded, what incalculable dividends in the
+Fishery way! But had to be given up again, in exchange for the
+Netherlands, when Peace came. Alas, your Majesty! Would it be quite
+impossible, then, to go direct upon your own sole errand, the
+JENKINS'S-EAR one, instead of stumbling about among the Foreign
+chimney-pots, far and wide, under nightmares, in this terrible
+manner?--Let us to Silesia again.
+
+
+
+                          Chapter IX.
+
+       THE AUSTRIAN-SAXON ARMY INVADES SILESIA, ACROSS THE
+                           MOUNTAINS.
+
+Valori, who is to be of Friedrich's Campaign this Year, came
+posting off directly in rear of the glorious news of Fontenoy;
+found Friedrich at Camenz, rather in spirits than otherwise;
+and lodged pleasantly with Abbot Tobias and him, till the Campaign
+should begin. Two things surprise Valori: first, the great
+strength, impregnable as it were, to which Neisse has been brought
+since he saw it last,--superlative condition of that Fortress, and
+of the Army itself, as it gathers daily more and more about
+Frankenstein here:--and then secondly, and contrariwise, the
+strangely neglected posture of mountainous or Upper Silesia, given
+up to Pandours. Quite submerged, in a manner: Margraf Karl lies
+quiet among them at Jagerndorf, "eating his magazine;" General
+Hautcharmoi (Winterfeld's late chief in that Wurben affair), with
+his small Detachment, still hovers about in those Ratibor parts,
+"with the Strong Towns to fall-back upon," or has in effect fallen
+back accordingly; and nothing done to coerce the Pandours at all.
+While Prince Karl and Weissenfels are daily coming on, in force
+100,000, their intention certain; force, say, about 100,000
+regular! Very singular to Valori.
+
+"Sire, will not you dispute the Passes, then?" asks Valori, amazed:
+"Not defend your Mountain rampart, then?" "MON CHER; the Mountain
+rampart is three or four hundred miles long; there are twelve or
+twenty practicable roads through it. One is kept in darkness, too;
+endless Pandour doggery shutting out your daylight:--ill defending
+such a rampart," answers Friedrich. "But how, then," persists
+Valori; "but--?" "One day the King answered me," says Valori,
+"'MON AMI, if you want to get the mouse, don't shut, the trap;
+leave the trap open (ON LAISSE LA SOURICIERE OUVERTE)!'" Which was
+a beam of light to the inquiring thought of Valori, a military man
+of some intelligence. [See VALORI, i. 222, 224, 228.]
+
+That, in fact, is Friedrich's purpose privately formed. He means
+that the Austrians shall consider him cowed into nothing, as he
+understands they already do; that they shall enter Silesia in the
+notion of chasing him; and shall, if need be, have the pleasure of
+chasing him,--till perhaps a right moment arrive. For he is full of
+silent finesse, this young King; soon sees into his man, and can
+lead him strange dances on occasion. In no man is there a
+plentifuler vein of cunning, nor of a finer kind. Lynx-eyed
+perspicacity, inexhaustible contrivance, prompt ingenuity,--a man
+very dangerous to play with at games of skill. And it is cunning
+regulated always by a noble sense of honor, too; instinctively
+abhorrent of attorneyism and the swindler element: a cunning, sharp
+as the vulpine, yet always strictly human, which is rather
+beautiful to see. This is one of Friedrich's marked endowments.
+Intellect sun-clear, wholly practical (need not be specially deep),
+and entirely loyal to the fact before it; this--if you add rapidity
+and energy, prompt weight of stroke, such as was seldom met with--
+will render a man very dangerous to his adversary in the game of
+war.--Here is the last of our Pandour Adventures for the present:--
+
+"From May 12th, Friedrich had been gathering closer and closer
+about Frankenstein; by the end of the month (28th, as it proved) he
+intends that all Detachments shall be home, and the Army take Camp
+there. The most are home; Margraf Karl, at Jagerndorf, has not yet
+done eating his magazine; but he too must come home. Summon the
+Margraf home:--it is not doubted he will cut himself through, he
+and his 12,000; but such is the swarm of Pandours hovering between
+him and us, no estafette, or cleverest letter-bearer, can hope to
+get across to him. Ziethen with 500 Hussars, he must take the
+Letter; there is no other way. Ziethen mounts; fares swiftly forth,
+towards Neustadt, with his Letter; lodges in woods; dodges the
+thick-crowding Tolpatcheries (passes himself off for a Tolpatchery,
+say some, and captures Hungarian Staff-Officers who come to give
+him orders [Frau van Blumenthal, <italic> Life of De Ziethen, <end
+italic> pp. 171-181 (extremely romantic; now given up as mythical,
+for most part): see Orlich (ii. 150); but also Ranke (iii. 245),
+Preuss, &c.]); is at length found out, and furiously set upon,
+'Ziethen, Hah!'--but gets to Jagerndorf, Margraf Karl coming out to
+the rescue, and delivers his Letter. 'Home, then, all of us
+to-morrow!' And so, Saturday, 22d May, before we get to Neustadt on
+the way home, there is an authentic passage of arms, done very
+brilliantly by Margraf Karl against Pandours and others.
+ 
+"To right of us, to left, barring our road, the enemy, 20,000 of
+them, stand ranked on heights, in chosen positions; cannon-
+batteries, grenadiers, dragoons of Gotha and infinite Pandours:
+military jungle bristling far and wide. And you must push it
+heartily, and likewise cut the tap-root of it (seize its big guns),
+or it will not roll away. Margraf Karl shoots forth his steady
+infantry ('Silent till you see the whites of their eyes!'),--his
+cavalry with new manoeuvres; whose behavior is worthy of Ziethen
+himself:--in brief, the jungle is struck as by a whirlwind, the
+tap-root of it cut, and rolls simultaneously out of range, leaving
+only the Regiment of Gotha,, Regiment of Ogilvy and some Regulars,
+who also get torn to shreds, and utterly ruined. Seeing which, the
+Pandour jungle plunges wholly into the woods, uttering horrible
+cries (EN POUSSANT DES CRIS TERRIBLES), says Friedrich.
+[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> iii. 106. More
+specially BERICHTE VON DER AM 22 MAI, 1745 BEY NEUSTADT IN OBER-
+SCHLESIEN VORGEFALLENER ACTION (Seyfarth, <italic> Beylage, <end
+italic> i. 159-166).] Our new cavalry-manoeuvres deserve praise.
+Margraf Karl had the honor to gain his Cousin's approbation this
+day; and to prove himself, says the Cousin, (worthy of the
+grandfather he came from,'--my own great-grandfather;
+Great Elector, Friedrich-Wilhelm; whose style of motion at
+Fehrbellin, or on the ice of the Frische Haf (soldiers all in
+sledges, tearing along to be at the Swedes), was probably somewhat
+of this kind." ...
+
+"Some days ago, Winterfeld had been pushed out to Landshut, with
+Detachment of 2,000, to judge a little for himself which way the
+Austrians were coming, and to scare off certain Uhlans (the SAXON
+species of Tolpatchery), who were threatening to be mischievous
+thereabouts. The Uhlans, at sound of Winterfeld, jingled away at
+once: but, in a day or two, there came upon him, on the sudden,
+Pandour outburst in quite other force;--and in the very hours while
+Ziethen was struggling into Jagerndorf, and still more emphatically
+next day, while Margraf Karl was handling his Pandours,--Colonel
+Winterfeld, a hundred miles to westward lapped among the Mountains,
+chanced to be dealing again with the same article. Very busy with
+it, from 4 o'clock this morning; likely to give a good account of
+the job. Steadily defending Landshut and himself, against the
+grenadier battalions, cannon and furious overplus of Pandours
+(8,000 or 9,000, it is said, six to one or so in the article of
+cavalry), which General Nadasti, a scientific leader of men or
+Pandours, skilfully and furiously hurls upon Landshut and him, in
+an unexpected manner. Colonel Winterfeld had need of all his heart
+and energy, in the intricate ground; against the furious overplus
+well manoeuvred: but in him too there are manoeuvres; if he fall
+back here, it is to rush on double strong there; hour after hour he
+inexpugnably defends himself,--till General Stille, Friedrich's old
+Tutor, our worthy writing friend, whom we occasionally quote, comes
+up with help; and Nadasti is at once brushed home again, with sore
+smart of failure, and 'the loss of 600 killed,' among other items.
+[<italic> Bericht von der am 21 Mai, 1745 bey Landshut
+rorgefallener Action, in Feldzuge, <end italic> i. 302-305 (or in
+Seyfarth, <italic> Beylage, <end italic> i. 155-158); <italic>
+OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> iii. 105; Stille, pp. 120-124
+(who misdates, "23d May" for 22d).] Colonel Winterfeld was made
+Major-General next day, for this action. Colonel Winterfeld is
+cutting out a high course for himself, by his conduct in these
+employments; solidity, brilliant effectuality, shining through all
+he does; his valor and value, his rapid just insight, fiery energy
+and nobleness of mind more and more disclosing themselves,--to one
+who is a judge of men, and greatly needs for his own use the first-
+rate quality in that article."
+
+Friedrich has left the mouse-trap open;--and latterly has been
+baiting it with a pleasant spicing of toasted cheese. One of his
+Spies, reporting from Prince Karl's quarters, Friedrich has at this
+time discovered to be a Double-Spy, reporting thither as well.
+Double-Spy, there is an ugly fact;--perhaps not quite convenient to
+abolish it by hemp and gibbet; perhaps it could be turned to use,
+as most facts can? "Very good, my expert Herr von Schonfeld [that
+was the knave's name]; and now of all things, whenever the Prince
+does get across,--instant word to us of that! Nothing so important
+to us. If he should get BETWEEN us and Breslau, for example, what
+would the consequence be!" To this purport Friedrich instructs his
+Double-Spy; sends him off, unhanged, to Prince Karl's Camp, to blab
+this fresh bit of knowledge. "We likewise," says Friedrich,
+"ordered some repairs on the roads leading to Breslau;"--last turn
+of the hand to our bit of toasted fragrancy. And Prince Karl is
+actually striding forward, at an eager pace:--and Nadasti VERSUS
+Winterfeld, the other day, could Winterfeld have guessed it, was
+the actual vanguard of the march; and will be up again straightway!
+Whereupon Winterfeld too is called home; and all eyes are bent on
+the Landshut side.
+
+Prince Karl, under these fine omens, had been urgent on the Saxons
+to be swift; Saxons under Weissenfels did at last "get their cannon
+up," and we hear of them for certain, in junction with the
+Austrians, at Schatzlar, on the Bohemian side of the Giant-
+Mountains; climbing with diligence those wizard solitudes and
+highland wastes. In a word, they roll across into Silesia, to
+Landshut (29th May); nothing doubting but Friedrich has cowered
+into what retreats he has, as good as desperate of Silesia, and
+will probably be first heard of in Breslau, when they get thither
+with their sieging guns. No cautious sagacious old Feldmarschall
+Traun is in that Host at present; nothing but a Prince Karl, and a
+poor Duke of Weissenfels; who are too certain of several things;--
+very capable of certainty, and also of doubt, the wrong way of the
+facts. Their force is, by strict count, 75,000; and they march from
+Landshut, detained a little by provender concerns, on the last day
+of May. [Orlich, ii. 146; Ranke, iii. 247; Stenzel, iv. 245.]
+
+May 28th, Friedrich had encamped at Frankenstein; May 30th, he sets
+forth northwestward, to be nearer the new scene; encamps at
+Reichenbach, that night; pushes forward again, next day, for
+Schweidnitz, for Striegau (in all, a shift northwest of some forty
+miles);--and from June 1st, lies stretched out between Schweidnitz
+and Striegau, nine miles long; well hidden in the hollows of the
+little Rivers thereabouts (Schweidnitz Water, Striegau Water), with
+their little knolls and hills; watching Prince Karl's probable
+place of egress from the Mountain Country opposite. His main Camp
+is from Schweidnitz to Jauernik, some five miles long; but he has
+his vanguard up as far as Striegau, Dumoulin and Winterfeld as
+vanguard, in good strength, a little way behind or westward of that
+Town and Stream; Nassau and his Division are screened in the Wood
+called Nonnenbusch (NUN'S BUSH), and there are outposts sprinkled
+all about, and vedettes watching from the hill-tops, from the
+Stanowitz Foxhill; the Zedlitz "Cowhill," "Winchill:" an Army not
+courting observation, but intent very much to observe. Nadasti has
+appeared again; at Freyburg, few miles off, on this side of the
+Mountains; goes out scouting, reconnoitring; but is "fired at from
+the growing corn," and otherwise hoodwinked by false symptoms, and
+makes little of that business. Friedrich's Army we will compute at
+70,000. [General-Lieutenant Freiherr Leo von Lutzow, <italic> Die
+Schlacht von Hohenfriedbeg <end italic> (Potsdam, 1845), pp. 18,
+21.] Not quite equal in number to Prince Karl's; and, in other
+particulars, willing and longing that Prince Karl would arrive, and
+try its quality.
+
+Friedrich's head-quarter is at Jauernik: he goes daily riding
+hither, thither; to the top of the Fuchsberg (FOXHILL at Stanowitz)
+with eager spy-glass; daily many times looks with his spy-glass to
+the ragged peaks about Bolkenhayn, Kauder, Rohnstock; expecting the
+throw of the dice from that part. On Thursday, 3d June: Do you
+notice that cloud of dust rising among the peaks over yonder?
+Dust-cloud mounting higher and higher. There comes the big crisis,
+then! There are the combined Weissenfels and Karl with their
+Austrian Saxons, issuing proudly from their stone labyrinth;
+guns, equipments, baggages, all perfectly brought through; rich
+Silesian plain country now fairly at their feet, Breslau itself but
+a few marches off:--at sight of all which, the Austrian big host
+bursts forth into universal field-music, and shakes out its banners
+to the wind. Thursday, 3d June, 1745; a dramatic Entry of something
+quite considerable on the Stage of History.
+
+Friedrich, with Nassau and generals round, stands upon the
+Fuchsberg,--his remarks not given, his looks or emotions not
+described to us, his thought well known,--and looks at it through
+his TUBUS (or spy-glass): There they are, then, and the big moment
+is come! Friedrich had seen the dust and the manoeuvring of them,
+deeper in the Hills, from this same Fuchsberg yesterday, and
+inferred what was coming; calculated by what roads or hill-tracks
+they could issue: and how he, in each case, was to deal with them;
+his march-routes are all settled, plank-bridges repaired, all
+privately is ready for these proud Austrian musical gentlemen, here
+in the hollow. Friedrich has been upon this Fuchsberg with his
+TUBUS daily, many times since Monday last: it is our general
+observatorium, says Stille, and commands a fine view into the
+interior of these Hills. A Fuchsberg which has become notable in
+the Prussian maps: "the Stanowitz Fuchsberg," east side of Striegau
+Water,--let no tourist mistake himself; for there are two or even
+three other Fuchsbergs, a mile or so northward on the western side
+of that Stream, which need to be distinguished by epithets, as the
+Striegau Fuchsberg, the Graben Fuchsberg, and perhaps still others:
+comparable to the FOUR Neisse rivers, three besides the one we
+know, which occur in this piece of Country! Our German cousins, I
+have often sorrowed to find, have practically a most poor talent
+for GIVING NAMES; and indeed much, for ages back, is lying in a sad
+state of confusion among them. Many confused things, rotting far
+and wide, in contradiction to the plainest laws of Nature;
+things as well as names! All the welcomer this Prussian Army, this
+young Friedrich leading it; they, beyond all earthly entities of
+their epoch, are not in a state of confusion, but of most strict
+conformity to the laws of Arithmetic and facts of Nature: perhaps a
+very blessed phenomenon for Germany in the long-run.
+
+Prince Karl with Weissenfels, General Berlichingen and many plumed
+dignitaries, are dining on the Hill-top near Hohenfriedberg:
+after having given order about everything, they witness there, over
+their wine, the issue of their Columns from the Mountains;
+which goes on all afternoon, with field-music, spread banners;
+and the oldest General admits he never saw a finer review-
+manoeuvre, or one better done, if so well. Thus sit they on the
+Hill-top (GALGENBERG, not far from the gallows of the place, says
+Friedrich), in the beautiful June afternoon. Silesia lying
+beautifully azure at their feet; the Zobtenberg, enchanted
+Mountain, blue and high on one's eastern horizon;
+Prussians noticeable only in weak hussar parties four or five miles
+off, which vanish in the hollow grounds again. All intending for
+Breslau, they, it is like;--and here, red wine and the excellent
+manoeuvre going on. "The Austrian-and-Saxon Army streamed out all
+afternoon," says a Country Schoolmaster of those parts, whose
+Day-book has been preserved, [In Lutzow, pp. 123-132.] "each
+regiment or division taking the place appointed it; all afternoon,
+till late in the night, submerging the Country as in a deluge,"
+five miles long of them; taking post at the foot of the Hills
+there, from Hohenfriedberg round upon Striegau, looking towards the
+morrow's sunrise. To us poor country-folk not a beautiful sight;
+their light troops flying ahead, and doing theft and other mischief
+at a sad rate.
+
+On the other hand, the Austrian and Saxon gentlemen, from their
+Gallows-Hill at Hohenfriedberg, notice, four or five miles in the
+distance, opposite them, or a little to the left of opposite, a
+Body of Prussian horse and foot, visibly wending northward; like a
+long glittering serpent, the glitter of their muskets flashing back
+yonder on the afternoon sun and us, as they mount from hollow to
+height. Ten or twelve thousand of them; making for Striegau, to
+appearance. Intending to bivouac or billet there, and keep some
+kind of watch over us; belike with an eye to being rear-guard, on
+the retreat towards Breslau to-morrow? Or will they retreat without
+attempting mischief? Serenity of Weissenfels engages to seize the
+heights and proper posts, over yonder, this night yet; and will
+take Striegau itself, the first thing, to-morrow morning.
+
+Yes, your Serenities, those are Prussians in movement: Vanguard
+Corps of Dumoulin, Winterfeld;--Rittmeister Seydlitz rides yonder:
+--and it is not their notion to retreat without mischief. For there
+stands, not so far off, on the Stanowitz Fuchsberg, a brisk little
+Gentleman, if you could notice him; with his eyes fixed on you, and
+plans in the head of him now getting nearly mature. For certain, he
+is pushing out that column of men; and all manner of other columns
+are getting order to push out, and take their ground; and to-morrow
+morning--you will not find him in retreat! Such are the phenomena
+in that Striegau-Hohenfriedberg region, while the sun is bending
+westward, on Thursday, 3d June, 1745.
+
+"From Hohenfriedberg, which leans against the higher Mountains,
+there may be, across to Striegau northeast, which stands well apart
+from them, among lower Hills of its own, a distance of about five
+English miles. The intervening country is of flat, though upland
+nature: the first broad stage, or STAIR-STEP, so to speak, leading
+down into the general interior levels of Silesia in those parts.
+A tract which is now tolerably dried by draining, but was then
+marshy as well as bushy:--flat to the eye, yet must be
+imperceptibly convexed a little, for the line of watershed is
+hereabouts: walk from Hohenfriedberg to Striegau, the water on your
+left hand flows, though mainly in ditches or imperceptible oozings,
+to the north and west,--there to fall into an eastern fork of the
+Roaring Neisse [one of our three new Neisses, which is a very quiet
+stream here; runs close by the Mountain base, fed by many torrents,
+and must get its name, WUTHENDE or Roaring, from the suddenness of
+its floods]: into this, bound northward and westward, run or ooze
+all waters on your left hand, as you go to Striegau. Right hand,
+again, or to eastward, you will find all sauntering, or running in
+visible brooks into Striegau Water [little River notable to us],
+which comes circling from the Mountains, past Hohenfriedberg,
+farther south; and has got to some force as a stream before it
+reaches Striegau, and turns abruptly eastward;--eastward, to join
+Schweidnitz Water, and form with it the SECOND stair-step downwards
+to the Plain Country. Has its Fuchsbergs, Kuhbergs and little
+knolls and heights interspersed, on both sides of it, in the
+conceivable way.
+
+"So that, looking eastward from the heights of Hohenfriedberg, our
+broad stage or stair-step has nothing of the nature of a valley,
+but rather is a kind of insensibly swelling plain between two
+valleys, or hollows, of small depth; and slopes both ways.
+Both ways; but MORE towards the Striegau-Water valley or hollow;
+and thence, in a lazily undulating manner, to other hollows and
+waters farther down. Friedrich's Camp lies in the next, the
+Schweidnitz-Water hollow; and is five, or even nine miles long,
+from Schweidnitz northward;--much hidden from the Austrian-Saxon
+gentlemen at present. No hills farther, mere flat country, to
+eastward of that. But to the north, again, about Striegau, the
+hollow deepens, narrows; and certain Hills," much notable at
+present, "rise to west of Striegau, definite peaked Hills, with
+granite quarries in them and basalt blocks atop:--Striegau, it
+appears, is, in old Czech dialect, TRZIZA, which means TRIPLE HILL,
+the 'Town of the Three Hills.' [Lutzow, p. 28.] An ancient quaint
+little Town, of perhaps 2,000 souls: brown-gray, the stones of it
+venerably weathered; has its wide big market-place, piazza, plain-
+stones, silent enough except on market-days: nestles itself
+compactly in the shelter of its Three Hills, which screen it from
+the northwest; and has a picturesque appearance, its Hills and it,
+projected against the big Mountain range beyond, as you approach it
+from the Plain Country.
+
+"Hohenfriedberg, at the other corner of our battle-stage, on the
+road to Landshut, is a Village of no great compass; but sticks
+pleasantly together, does not straggle in the usual way;
+climbs steep against its Gallows-Hill (now called 'SIEGESBERG,
+Victory Hill,' with some tower or steeple-monument on it, built by
+subscription); and would look better, if trimmed a little and
+habitually well swept. The higher Mountain summits, Landshut way,
+or still more if you look southeastward, Glatz-ward, rise blue and
+huge, remote on your right; to left, the Roaring Neisse range close
+at hand, is also picturesque, though less Alpine in type."
+[Tourist's Note (1858).] ... And of all Hills, the notablest, just
+now to us, are those "Three" at Striegau.
+
+Those Three Hills of Striegau his Serenity of Weissenfels is to lay
+hold of, this night, with his extreme left, were it once got
+deployed and bivouacked. Those Hills, if he can: but Prussian
+Dumoulin is already on march thither; and privately has his eye
+upon them, on Friedrich's part!--For the rest, this upland
+platform, insensibly sloping two ways, and as yet undrained, is of
+scraggy boggy nature in many places; much of it damp ground, or
+sheer morass; better parts of it covered, at this season, with rank
+June grass, or greener luxuriance of oats and barley. A humble
+peaceable scene; peaceable till this afternoon; dotted, too, with
+six or seven poor Hamlets, with scraggy woods, where they have
+their fuel; most sleepy littery ploughman Hamlets, sometimes with a
+SCHLOSS or Mansion for the owner of the soil (who has absconded in
+the present crisis of things), their evening smoke rising rather
+fainter than usual; much cookery is not advisable with Uhlans and
+Tolpatchcs flying about. Northward between Striegau and the higher
+Mountains there is an extensive TEICHWIRTHSCHAFT, or "Pond-
+Husbandry" (gleaming visible from Hohenfriedberg Gallows-Hill just
+now); a combination of stagnant pools and carp-ponds, the ground
+much occupied hereabouts with what they name Carp-Husbandry.
+Which is all drained away in our time, yet traceable by the
+studious:--quaggy congeries of sluices and fish-ponds, no road
+through them except on intricate dams; have scrubby thickets about
+the border;--this also is very strong ground, if Weissenfels
+thought of defence there.
+
+Which Weissenfels does not, but only of attack. He occupies the
+ground nevertheless, rearward of this Carp-Husbandry, as becomes a
+strategic man; gradually bivouacking all round there, to end on the
+Three Hills, were his last regiments got up. The Carp-Husbandry is
+mainly about Eisdorf Hamlet:--in Pilgramshayn, where Weissenfels
+once thought of lodging, lives our Writing Schoolmaster.
+The Mountains lie to westward; flinging longer shadows, as the
+invasive troops continually deploy, in that beautiful manner;
+and coil themselves strategically on the ground, a bent rope,
+cordon, or line (THREE lines in depth), reaching from the front
+skirts of Hohenfriedberg to the Hills at Striegau again,--terrible
+to behold.
+
+In front of Hohenfriedberg, we say, is the extremity or right wing
+of the Austrian-Saxon bivouac, or will be when the process is
+complete; five miles to northeast, sweeping round upon Striegau
+region, will be their left, where mainly are the Saxons,--to nestle
+upon those Three Hills of Striegau: whitherward however, Dumoulin,
+on Friedrich's behalf, is already on march. Austrian-Saxon bivouac,
+as is the way in regulated hosts, can at once become Austrian-Saxon
+order-of-battle: and then, probably, on the Chord of that Arc of
+five miles, the big Fight will roll to-morrow; Striegau one end of
+it, Hohenfriedbcrg the other. Flattish, somewhat elliptic upland,
+stair-step from the Mountains, as we called it; tract considerably
+cut with ditches, carp-husbandries, and their tufts of wood;
+line from Striegau to Hohenfriedberg being axis or main diameter of
+it, and in general the line of watershed: there, probably, will the
+tug of war be. Friedrich, on his Fuchsberg, knows this;
+the Austrian-Saxon gentlemen, over their wine on the Gallows-Hill,
+do not yet know it, but will know.
+
+It was about four in the afternoon, when Valori, with a companion,
+waiting a good while in the King's Tent at Jauernik, at last saw
+his Majesty return from the Fuchsberg observatory. Valori and
+friend have great news: "Tournay fallen; siege done, your Majesty!"
+Valori's friend is one De Latour; who had brought word of Fontenoy
+("important victory on the Scamander," as Friedrich indignantly
+defined it to himself); and was bid wait here till this Siege-of-
+Tournay consummation ("as helpful to me as the Siege of Pekin!")
+should supervene. They hasten to salute his Majesty with the
+glorious tidings, Hmph! thinks Friedrich: and we are at death-grips
+here, little to be helped by your taking Pekin! However, he lets
+wit of nothing. "I make my compliments; mean to fight to-morrow."
+[Valori, i. 228.] Valori, as old soldier and friend, volunteers to
+be there and assist:--Good.
+
+Friedrich, I presume, at this late hour of four, may bc snatching a
+morsel of dinner; his orderlies are silently speeding, plans taken,
+orders given: To start all, at eight in the evening, for the Bridge
+of Striegau; there to cross, and spread to the right and to the
+left. Silent, not a word spoken, not a pipe lighted: silently
+across the Striegau Water there. A march of three miles for the
+nearest, who are here at Jauernik; of nine miles for the farthest
+about Schweidnitz; at Schweidnitz leave all your baggage, safe
+under the guns there. To the Bridge of Striegau, diligently,
+silently march along; Bridge of Striegau, there cross Striegau
+Water, and deploy to right and to left, in the way each of you
+knows. These are Friedrich's orders.
+
+Late in the dusk, Dumoulin and Winterfeld, whom we saw silently on
+march some hours ago, have silently glided past Striegau, and got
+into the Three-Hill region, which is some furlong or so farther
+north:--to his surprise, Dumoulin finds Saxon parties posting
+themselves thereabouts. He attacks said Saxon parties; and after
+some slight tussle, drives them mostly from their Three Hills;
+mostly, not altogether; one Saxon Hill is precipitous on our hither
+side of it, and we must leave that till the dawn break. Of the
+other Heights Dumoulin takes good possession, with cannon too, to
+be ready against dawn;--and ranks himself out to leftward withal,
+along the plain ground; for he is to be right wing, had the other
+troops come up. These are now all under way; astir from Jauernik
+and Schweidnitz, silently streaming along; and Dumoulin bivouacs
+here,--very silent he: not so silent the Saxons; who are still
+marching in, over yonder, to westward of Dumoulin, their rear-guard
+groping out its posts as it best can in the dark. Elsewhere, miles
+and miles along the foot of the Mountains, Austrian-Saxon watch-
+fires flame through the ambrosial night; and it is an impressive
+sight for Dumoulin,--still more for the poor Schoolmaster at
+Pilgramshayn and others, less concerned than Dumoulin. "It was
+beautiful," says Stille, who was there, "to see how the plain about
+Rohnstock, and all over that way, was ablaze with thousands of
+watch-fires (TAUSEND UND ABER TAUSEND); by the light of these, we
+could clearly perceive the enemy's troops continually defile from
+the Hills the whole night through." [Cited in Seyfarth, i. 630.]
+
+Serenity of Weissenfels, after all, does not lodge at Pilgramshayn; far in the night, he goes to sleep at Rohnstock, a Schloss and
+Hamlet on that fork of Roaring Neisse, by the foot of the
+Mountains; three or four miles off, yet handy enough for picking up
+Striegau the first thing to-morrow. His Highness Prince Karl lies
+in Hausdorf, tolerable quarters, pretty much in the centre of his
+long bivouac; day's business well done, and bottle (as one's wont
+rather is) well enjoyed. Nadasti has been out scouting; but was
+pricked into by hussar parties, fired into from the growing corn;
+and could make out little, but the image of his own ideas.
+Nadasti's ultimate report is, That the Prussians are perfectly
+quiet in their camp; from Jauernik to Schweidnitz, watch-fires all
+alight, sentries going their rounds. And so they are, in fact;
+sentries and watch-fires,--but now nothing else there, a mere shell
+of a camp; the men of it streaming steadily along, without speech,
+without tobacco; and many of them are across Striegau Bridge by
+this time!--
+
+It was past eleven, so close and continuous went this march, before
+Valori and his Latour, with their carriages and furnitures, could
+find an interval, and get well into it. Never will Valori forget
+the discipline of these Prussians, and how they marched.
+Difficult ways; the hard road is for their artillery; the men march
+on each side, sometimes to mid-leg in water,--never mind. Wholly in
+order, wholly silent; Valori followed them three leagues close, and
+there was not one straggler. Every private man, much more every
+officer, knows well what grim errand they are on; and they make no
+remarks. Steady as Time; and, except that their shoes are not of
+felt, silent as he. The Austrian watch-fires glow silent manifold
+to leftward yonder; silent overhead are the stars:--the path of all
+duty, too, is silent (not about Striegau alone) for every well-
+drilled man. To-morrow;--well, to-morrow?
+
+A grimmish feeling against the Saxons is understood to be prevalent
+among these men. Bruhl, Weissenfels himself, have been reported
+talking high,--"Reduce our King to the size of an Elector again,"
+and other foolish things;--indeed, grudges have been accumulating
+for some time. "KEIN PARDON (No quarter)!" we hear has been a word
+among the Saxons, as they came along; the Prussians growl to one
+another, "Very well then, None!" Nay Friedrich's general order is,
+"No prisoners, you cavalry, in the heat of fight; cavalry, strike
+at the faces of them: you infantry, keep your fire till within
+fifty steps; bayonet withal is to be relied on." These were
+Friedrich's last general orders, given in the hollow of the night,
+near the foot of that Fuchsberg where he had been so busy all day;
+a widish plain space hereabouts, Striegau Bridge now near: he had
+lain snme time in his cloak, waiting till the chief generals, with
+the heads of their columns, could rendezvous here. He then sprang
+on horseback; spoke briefly the essential things (one of them the
+above);--"Had meant to be more minute, in regard to positions and
+the like; but all is so in darkness, embroiled by the flare of the
+Austrian watch-fires, we can make nothing farther of localities at
+present: Striegau for right wing, left wing opposite to
+Hohenfriedberg,--so, and Striegau Water well to rear of us.
+Be diligent, exact, all faculties awake: your own sense, and the
+Order of Battle which you know, must do the rest. Forward; steady:
+can I doubt but you will acquit yourselves like Prussian men?"
+And so they march, across the Bridge at Striegau, south outskirt of
+the Town,--plank Bridge, I am afraid;--and pour themselves, to
+right and to left, continually the livelong night.
+
+To describe the Battle which ensued, Battle named of Striegau or
+Hohenfriedberg, excels the power of human talent,--if human talent
+had leisure for such employment. It is the huge shock and clash of
+70,000 against 70,000, placed in the way we said. An enormous
+furious SIMALTAS (or "both-at-once," as the Latins phrase it),
+spreading over ten square miles. Rather say, a wide congeries of
+electric simultaneities; all ELECTRIC, playing madly into one
+another; most loud, most mad: the aspect of which is smoky,
+thunderous, abstruse; the true SEQUENCES of which, who shall
+unravel? There are five accounts of it, all modestly written, each
+true-looking from its own place: and a thrice-diligent Prussian
+Officer, stationed on the spot in late years, has striven well to
+harmonize them all. [Five Accounts: 1. The Prussian Official
+Account, in <italic> Helden-Geschichte,<end italic>  i. 1098-1102.
+2. The Saxon, ib. 1103-1108. 3. The Austrian, ib. 1109-1115.
+4. Stille's (ii. 125-133, of English Translation). 5. Friedrich's
+own, <italic> OEuvres, <end italic> iii. 108-118. Lutzow, above
+cited, is the harmonizer. Besides which, two of value, in <italic>
+Feldzuge, <end italic> i. 310-323, 328-336; not to mention
+Cogniazzo, <italic> Confessions of an Austrian Veeran <end italic>
+(Breslau, 1788-1791: strictly Anonymous at that time, and candid,
+or almost more, to Prussian merit;--still worth reading, here and
+throughout), ii. 123-135; &c. &c.] Well worth the study of military
+men;--who might make tours towards this and the other great battle-
+field, and read such things, were they wise. For us, a feature or
+two, in the huge general explosion, to assist the reader's fancy in
+conceiving it a little, is all that can be pretended to.
+
+
+
+                           Chapter X.
+
+                    BATTLE OF HOHENFRIEDBERG.
+
+With the first streak of dawn, the dispute renewed itself between
+those Prussians and Saxons who are on the Heights of Striegau.
+The two Armies are in contact here; they lie wide apart as yet at
+the other end. Cannonading rises here, on both sides, in the dim
+gray of the morning, for the possession of these Heights.
+The Saxons are out-cannonaded and dislodged, other Saxons start to
+arms in support: the cry "To arms!" spreads everywhere, rouses
+Weissenfels to horseback; and by sunrise a furious storm of battle
+has begun, in this part. Hot and fierce on both sides; charges of
+horse, shock after shock, bayonet-charges of foot; the great guns
+going like Jove's thunder, and the continuous tearing storm of
+small guns, very loud indeed: such a noise, as our poor
+Schoolmaster, who lives on this spot, thinks he will hear only once
+again, when the Last Trumpet sounds! It did indeed, he informs us,
+resemble the dissolution of Nature: "For all fell dark too;"
+a general element of sulphurous powder-smoke, streaked with dull
+blazes; and death and destruction very nigh. What will become of
+poor pacific mortals hereabouts? Rittmeister Seydlitz, Winterfeld
+his patron ride, with knit brows, in these horse-charges;
+fiery Rothenburg too; Truchsess von Waldburg, at the head of his
+Division,--poor Truchsess known in London society, a cannon-ball
+smites the life out of him, and he ended here.
+
+At the first clash of horse and foot, the Saxons fancied they
+rather had it; at the second, their horse became distressed; at the
+third, they rolled into disorderly heaps. The foot also, stubborn
+as they were, could not stand that swift firing, followed by the
+bayonet and the sabre; and were forced to give ground. The morning
+sun shone into their eyes, too, they say; and there had risen a
+breath of easterly wind, which hurled the smoke upon them, so that
+they could not see. Decidedly staggering backwards; getting to be
+taken in flank and ruined, though poor Weissenfels does his best.
+About five in the morning, Friedrich came galloping hitherward;
+Valori with him: "MON AMI, this is looking well! This will do,
+won't it?" The Saxons are fast sinking in the scale; and did
+nothing thenceforth but sink ever faster; though they made a stiff
+defence, fierce exasperation on both sides; and disputed every
+inch. Their position, in these scraggy Woods and Villages, in these
+Morasses and Carp-Husbandries, is very strong.
+
+It had proved to be farther north, too, than was expected; so that
+the Prussians had to wheel round a little (right wing as a centre,
+fighting army as radius) before they could come parallel, and get
+to work: a delicate manoeuvre, which they executed to Valori's
+admiration, here in the storm of battle; tramp, tramp, velocity
+increasing from your centre outwards, till at the end of the
+radius, the troops are at treble-quick, fairly running forward, and
+the line straight all the while. Admirable to Valori, in the hot
+whirlwind of battle here. For the great guns go, in horrid salvos,
+unabated, and the crackling thunder of the small guns; "terrible
+tussling about those Carp-ponds, that quaggy Carp-husbandry," says
+the Schoolmaster, "and the Heavens blotted out in sulphurous fire-
+streaked smoke. What had become of us pacific? Some had run in
+time, and they were the wisest; others had squatted, who could find
+a nook suitable. Most of us had gathered into the Nursery-garden at
+the foot of our Village; we sat quaking there,--our prayers grown
+tremulously vocal;--in tears and wail, at least the women part.
+Enemies made reconcilement with each other," says he, "and dear
+friends took farewell." [His Narrative, in Lutzow, UBI SUPRA.]
+One general Alleleu; the Last Day, to all appearance, having come.
+Friedrich, seeing things in this good posture, gallops to the left
+again, where much urgently requires attention from him.
+
+On the Austrian side, Prince Karl, through his morning sleep at
+Hausdorf, had heard the cannonading: "Saxons taking Striegau!"
+thinks he; a pleasant lullaby enough; and continues to sleep and
+dream. Agitated messengers rush in, at last; draw his curtains:
+"Prussians all in rank, this side Striegau Water; Saxons beaten, or
+nearly so, at Striegau: we must stand to arms, your Highness!"--
+"To arms, of course," answers Karl; and hurries now, what he can,
+to get everything in motion. The bivouac itself had been in order
+of battle; but naturally there is much to adjust, to put in trim;
+and the Austrians are not distinguished for celerity of movement.
+All the worse for them just now.
+
+On Friedrich's side, so far as I can gather, there have happened
+two cross accidents. First, by that wheeling movement, done to
+Valori's admiration in the Striegau quarter, the Prussian line has
+hitched itself up towards Striegau, has got curved inward, and
+covers less ground than was counted on; so that there is like to be
+some gap in the central part of;--as in fact there was, in spite of
+Friedrich's efforts, and hitchings of battalions and squadrons:
+an indisputable gap, though it turned to rich profit for Friedrich;
+Prince Karl paying no attention to it. Upon such indisputable gap a
+wakeful enemy might have done Friedrich some perilous freak;
+but Karl was in his bed, as we say;--in a terrible flurry, too,
+when out of bed. Nothing was done upon the gap; and Friedrich had
+his unexpected profit by it before long.
+
+The second accident is almost worse. Striegau Bridge (of planks, as
+I feared), creaking under such a heavy stream of feet aud wheels
+all night, did at last break, in some degree, and needed to be
+mended; so that the rearward regiments, who are to form Friedrich's
+left wing, are in painful retard;--and are becoming frightfully
+necessary, the Austrians as yet far outflanking us, capable of
+taking us in flank with that right wing of theirs! The moment was
+agitating to a General-in-chief: Valori will own this young King's
+bearing was perfect; not the least flurry, though under such a
+strain. He has aides-de-camp, dashing out every-whither with
+orders, with expedients; Prince Henri, his younger Brother:
+galloping the fastest; nay, at last, he begs Valori himself to
+gallop, with orders to a certain General Gessler, in whose Brigade
+are Dragoons. Which Valori does,--happily without effect on
+Gessler; who knows no Valori for an aide-de-camp, and keeps the
+ground appointed him; rearward of that gap we talked of.
+
+Happily the Austrian right wing is in no haste to charge.
+Happily Ziethen, blocked by that incumbrance of the Bridge mending,
+"finds a ford higher up," the assiduous Ziethen; splashes across,
+other regiments following; forms in line well leftward; and instead
+of waiting for the Austrian charge, charges home upon them,
+fiercely through the difficult grounds, No danger of the Austrians
+outflanking us now; they are themselves likely to get hard measure
+on their flank. By the ford and by the Bridge, all regiments, some
+of them at treble-quick, get to their posts still in time.
+Accident second has passed without damage. Forward, then;
+rapid, steady; and reserve your fire till within fifty paces!--
+Prinoe Ferdinand of Brunswick (Friedrich's Brother-in-law, a
+bright-eyed steady young man, of great heart for fight) tramps
+forth with his Division:--steady!--all manner of Divisions tramp
+forth; and the hot storm, Ziethen and cavalry dashing upon that
+right wing of theirs, kindles here also far and wide.
+
+The Austrian cavalry on this wing and elsewhere, it is clear, were
+ill off. "We could not charge the Prussian left wing, say they,
+partly because of the morasses that lay between us; and partly
+[which is remarkable] because they rushed across and charged us."
+[Austrian report, <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
+i. 1113.] Prince Karl is sorry to report such things of his
+cavalry; but their behavior was bad and not good. The first shock
+threw them wavering; the second,--nothing would persuade them to
+dash forth and meet it. High officers commanded, obtested, drew out
+pistols, Prince Karl himself shot a fugitive or two,--it was to no
+purpose; they wavered worse at every new shock; and at length a
+shock came (sixth it was, as the reporter counts) which shook them
+all into the wind. Decidedly shy of the Prussians with their new
+manoeuvres, and terrible way of coming on, as if sure of beating.
+In the Saxon quarter, certain Austrian regiments of horse would not
+charge at all; merely kept firing from their carbines, and when the
+time came ran.
+
+As for the Saxons, they have been beaten these two hours; that is
+to say, hopeless these two hours, and getting beaten worse and
+worse. The Saxons cannot stand, but neither generally will they
+run; they dispute every ditch, morass and tuft of wood, especially
+every village. Wrecks of the muddy desperate business last, hour
+after hour. "I gave my men a little rest under the garden walls,"
+says one Saxon Gentleman, "or they would have died, in the heat and
+thirst and extreme fatigue: I would have given 100 gulden
+[10 pounds Sterling] for a glass of water." [<italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> ubi supra.] The Prussians push them on,
+bayonet in back; inexorable, not to be resisted; slit off whole
+battalions of them (prisoners now, and quarter given); take all
+their guns, or all that are not sunk in the quagmires;--in fine,
+drive them, part into the Mountains direct, part by circuit
+thither, down upon the rear of the Austrian fight: through
+Hausdorf, Seifersdorf and other Mountain gorges, where we hear no
+more of them, and shall say no more of them. A sore stroke for poor
+old Weissenfels; the last public one he has to take, in this world,
+for the poor man died before long. Nobody's blame, he says;
+every Saxon man did well; only some Austrian horse-regiments, that
+we had among us, were too shy. Adieu to poor old Weissenfels.
+Luck of war, what else,--thereby is he in this pass.
+
+And now new Prussian force, its Saxons being well abolished, is
+pressing down upon Prince Karl's naked left flank. Yes;--Prince
+Karl too will have to go. His cavalry is, for most part, shaken
+into ragged clouds; infantry, steady enough men, cannot stand
+everything. "I have observed," says Friedrich, "if you step sharply
+up to an Austrian battalion [within fifty paces or so], and pour in
+your fire well, in about a quarter of an hour you see the ranks
+beginning to shake, and jumble towards indistinctness;"
+[<italic> Military Instructions. <end italic>] a very hopeful
+symptom to you!
+
+It was at this moment that Lieutenant-General Gessler, under whom
+is the Dragoon regiment Baireuth, who had kept his place in spite
+of Valori's message, determined on a thing,--advised to it by
+General Schmettau (younger Schmettau), who was near. Gessler, as we
+saw, stood in the rear line, behind that gap (most likely one of
+several gaps, or wide spaces, left too wide, as we explained);
+Gessler, noticing the jumbly condition of those Austrian
+battalions, heaped now one upon another in this part,--motions to
+the Prussian Infantry to make what farther room is needful;
+then dashes through, in two columns (self and the Dragoon-Colonel
+heading the one, French Chasot, who is Lieutenant-Colonel, heading
+the other), sabre in hand, with extraordinary impetus and fire,
+into the belly of these jumbly Austrians; and slashes them to rags,
+"twenty battalions of them," in an altogether unexampled manner.
+Takes "several thousand prisoners," and such a haul of standards,
+kettle-drums and insignia of honor, as was never got before at one
+charge. Sixty-seven standards by the tale, for the regiment (by
+most All-Gracious Permission) wears, ever after, "67" upon its
+cartridge-box, and is allowed to beat the grenadier march;
+[Orlich, ii. 179 (173 n., 179 n., slightly wrong); <italic>
+Militair-Lexikon, <end italic> ii. 9, iv. 465, 468. See Preuss,
+i. 212; <italic> OEuvres de Frederic; <end italic> &c. &c.]--how
+many kettle-drums memory does not say.
+
+Prince Karl beats retreat, about 8 in the morning; is through
+Hohenfriedberg about 10 (cannon covering there, and Nadasti as
+rear-guard): back into the Mountains; a thoroughly well-beaten man.
+Towards Bolkenhayn, the Saxons and he; their heavy artillery and
+baggage had been left safe there. Not much pursued, and gradually
+rearranging himself; with thoughts,--no want of thoughts!
+Came pouring down, triumphantly invasive, yesterday; returns, on
+these terms, in about fifteen hours. Not marching with displayed
+banners and field-music, this time; this is a far other march.
+The mouse-trap had been left open, and we rashly went in!--Prince
+Karl's loss, including that of the Saxons (which is almost equal,
+though their number in the field was but HALF), is 9,000 dead and
+wounded, 7,000 prisoners, 66 cannon, 73 flags and standards;
+the Prussian is about 5,000 dead and wounded. [In Orlich (ii. 182)
+all the details.] Friedrich, at sight of Valori, embraces his GROS
+VALORI; says, with a pious emotion in voice and look, "My friend,
+God has helped me wonderfully this day!" Actually there was a kind
+of devout feeling visible in him, thinks Valori: "A singular
+mixture, this Prince, of good qualities and of bad; I never know
+which preponderates." [Valori, SOEPIUS.] As is the way with fat
+Valoris, when they come into such company.
+
+Friedrich is blamed by some military men, and perhaps himself
+thought it questionable, that he did not pursue Prince Karl more
+sharply. He says his troops could not; they were worn out with the
+night's marching and the day's fighting. He himself may well be
+worn out. I suppose, for the last four-and-twenty hours he, of all
+the contemporary sons of Adam, has probably been the busiest.
+Let us rest this day; rest till to-morrow morning, and be thankful.
+"So decisive a defeat," writes he to his Mother (hastily, misdating
+"6th" June for 4th), "has not been since Blenheim" [Letter in
+<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxvi. 71.] (which is
+tolerably true); and "I have made the Princes sign their names," to
+give the good Mother assurance of her children in these perils of
+war. Seldom has such a deliverance come to a man.
+
+
+
+                           Chapter XI.
+
+          CAMP OF CHLUM: FRIEDRICH CANNOT ACHIEVE PEACE.
+
+Friedrich marched, on the morrow, likewise to Bolkenhayn; which the
+enemy have just left; our hussars hanging on their rear, and
+bickering with Nadasti. Then again on the morrow, Sunday,--"twelve
+hours of continuous rain," writes Valori; but there is no down-
+pour, or distress, or disturbance that will shake these men from
+their ranks, writes Valori. And so it goes on, march after march,
+the Austrians ahead, Dumoulin and our hussars infesting their rear,
+which skilfully defended itself: through Landshut down into
+Bohemia; where are new successive marches, the Prussian
+quarterstaff stuck into the back of defeated Austria, "Home with
+you; farther home!"--and shogging it on,--without pause, for about
+a fortnight to come. And then only with temporary pause; that is to
+say, with intricate manoeuvrings of a month long, which shove it to
+Konigsgratz, its ultimatum, beyond which there is no getting it.
+The stages and successive campings, to be found punctually in the
+old Books and new, can interest only military readers. Here is a
+small theological thing at Landshut, from first hand:--
+
+JUNE 8th, 1745. "The Army followed Dumoulin's Corps, and marched
+upon Landshut. On arriving in that neighborhood, the King was
+surrounded by a troop of 2,000 Peasants,"--of Protestant persuasion
+very evidently! (which is much the prevailing thereabouts),--"who
+begged permission of him 'to massacre the Catholics of these parts,
+and clear the country of them altogether.' This animosity arose
+from the persecutions which the Protestants had suffered during the
+Austrian domination, when their churches used to be taken from them
+and given to the Popish priests,"--churches and almost their
+children, such was the anxiety to make them orthodox. The patience
+of these peasants had run over; and now, in the hour of hope, they
+proposed the above sweeping measure. "The King was very far from
+granting them so barbarous a permission. He told them, 'They ought
+rather to conform to the Scripture precept, to bless those that
+cursed them, and pray for those that despitefully used them;
+such was the way to gain the Kingdom of Heaven.' The peasants,"
+rolling dubious eyes for a moment, "answered, His Majesty was
+right; and desisted from their cruel pretension." [<italic> OEuvres
+de Frederic, <end italic> ii.218.] ...--"On Hohenfriedberg Day,"
+says another Witness, "as far as the sound of the cannon was heard,
+all round, the Protestants fell on their knees, praying for victory
+to the Prussians;" [In Ranke, iii. 259.] and at Breslau that
+evening, when the "Thirteen trumpeting Postilions" came tearing in
+with the news, what an enthusiasm without limit!
+
+Prince Karl has skill in choosing camps and positions:
+his Austrians are much cowed; that is the grievous loss in his late
+fight. So, from June 8th, when they quit Silesia,--by two roads to
+go more readily,--all through that month and the next, Friedrich
+spread to the due width, duly pricking into the rear of them,
+drives the beaten hosts onward and onward. They do not think of
+fighting; their one thought is to get into positions where they can
+have living conveyed to them, and cannot be attacked; for the
+former of which objects, the farther homewards they go, it is the
+better. The main pursuit, as I gather, goes leftward from Landshut,
+by Friedland,--the Silesian Friedland, once Wallenstein's.
+Through rough wild country, the southern slope of the Giant
+Mountains, goes that slow pursuit, or the main stream of it, where
+Friedrich in person is; intricate savage regions, cut by
+precipitous rocks and soaking quagmires, shaggy with woods:
+watershed between the Upper Elbe and Middle Oder; Glatz on our
+left,--with the rain of its mountains gathering to a Neisse River,
+eastward, which we know; and on their west or hither side, to a
+Mietau, Adler, Aupa and other many-branched feeders of the Elbe.
+Most complex military ground, the manoeuvrings on it endless,--
+which must be left to the reader's fancy here.
+
+About the end of June, Karl and his Austrians find a place suitable
+to their objects: Konigsgratz, a compact little Town, in the nook
+between the Elbe and Adler; covered to west and to south by these
+two streams; strong enough to east withal; and sure and convenient
+to the southern roads and victual. Against which Friedrich's
+manoeuvres avail nothing; so that he at last (20th July) crosses
+Elbe River; takes, he likewise, an inexpugnable Camp on the
+opposite shore, at a Village called Chlum; and lies there, making a
+mutual dead-lock of it, for six weeks or more. Of the prior Camps,
+with their abundance of strategic shufflings, wheelings, pushings,
+all issuing in this of Chlum, we say nothing: none of them,--
+except the immediately preceding one, called of Nahorzan, called
+also of Drewitz (for it was in parts a shifting entity, and flung
+the LIMBS of it about, strategically clutching at Konigsgratz),--
+had any permanency: let us take Chlum (the longest, and essentially
+the last in those parts) as the general summary of them, and alone
+rememberable by us. ["Camp of Gross-Parzitz [across the Mietau, to
+dislodge Prince Karl from his shelter behind that stream], June
+14th:" "Camp of Nahorzan, June 18th [and abstruse manoeuvrings, of
+a month, for Konigsgratz]: 20th July," cross Elbe for Chlum;
+and lie, yourself also inexpugnable, there. See <italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> (iii. 120 et seq.); especially see Orlich
+(ii. pp. 193, 194, 203, &c. &c.),--with an amplitude of inorganic
+details, sufficient to astonish the robustest memory!]
+
+Friedrich's purposes, at Chlum or previously, are not towards
+conquests in Bohemia, nor of fighting farther, if he can help it.
+But, in the mean while, he is eating out these Bohemian vicinages;
+no invasion of Silesia possible from that quarter soon again.
+That is one benefit: and he hopes always his enemies, under screw
+of military pressure with the one hand, and offer of the olive-
+branch with the other, will be induced to grant him Peace.
+Britannic Majesty, after Fontenoy and Hohenfriedberg, not to
+mention the first rumors of a Jacobite Rebellion, with France to
+rear of it, is getting eager to have Friedrich settled with, and
+withdrawn from the game again;--the rather, as Friedrich, knowing
+his man, has ceased latterly to urge him on the subject. Peace with
+George the Purseholder, does not that mean Peace with all the
+others? Friedrich knows the high Queen's indignation; but he little
+guesses, at this time, the humor of Bruhl and the Polish Majesty.
+He has never yet sent the Old Dessauer in upon them; always only
+keeps him on the slip, at Magdeburg; still hoping actualities may
+not be needed. He hopes too, in spite of her indignation, the
+Hungarian Majesty, with an Election on hand, with the Netherlands
+at such a pass, not to speak of Italy and the Middle Rhine, will
+come to moderate views again. On which latter points, his reckoning
+was far from correct! Within three months, Britannic Majesty and he
+did get to explicit Agreement (CONVENTION OF HANOVER, 26th August):
+but in regard to the Polish Majesty and the Hungarian there proved
+to be no such result attainable, and quite other methods
+necessary first!
+
+"Of military transactions in this Camp of Chlum, or in all these
+Bohemian-Silesian Camps, for near four months, there is nothing, or
+as good as nothing: Chlum has no events; Chlum vigilantly guards
+itself; and expects, as the really decisive to it, events that will
+happen far away. We are to conceive this military business as a
+dead-lock; attended with hussar skirmishes; attacks, defences, of
+outposts, of provision-wagons from Moravia or Silesia:--Friedrich
+has his food from Silesia chiefly, by several routes, 'convoys come
+once in the five days.' His horse-provender he forages;
+with Tolpatches watching him, and continual scufflings of fight:
+'for hay and glory,' writes one Prussian Officer, 'I assure you we
+fight well!' Endless enterprising, manoeuvring, counter-
+manoeuvring there at first was; and still is, if either party stir:
+but here, in their mutually fixed camps, tacit mutual observances
+establish themselves; and amid the rigorous armed vigilantes, there
+are traits of human neighborship. As usual in such cases.
+The guard-parties do not fire on one another, within certain
+limits: a signal that there are dead to bury, or the like, is
+strictly respected. On one such occasion it was (June 30th, Camp-
+of-Nahorzan time) that Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick--Prince
+Ferdinand, with a young Brother Albert volunteering and learning
+his business here, who are both Prussian--had a snatch of interview
+with a third much-loved Brother, Ludwig, who is in the Austrian
+service. A Prussian officer, venturing beyond the limits, had been
+shot; Ferdinand's message, 'Grant us burial of him!' found, by
+chance, Brother Ludwig in command of that Austrian outpost;
+who answers: 'Surely;--and beg that I may embrace my Brothers!'
+And they rode out, those three, to the space intermediate;
+talked there for half an hour, till the burial was done.
+[Mauvillon, <italic> Geschichte Ferdinands von Braunschweig-
+Luneburg, i. 118.] Fancy such an interview between the poor young
+fellows, the soul of honor each, and tied in that manner!
+
+"Trenck of the Life-guard was not quite the soul of honor. It was
+in the Nahorzan time too that Trenck, who had, in spite of express
+order to the contrary, been writing to his Cousin the indigo
+Pandour, was put under arrest when found out. 'Wrote merely about
+horses: purchase of horses, so help me God!' protests the
+blusterous Life-guardsman, loud as lungs will,--whether with truth
+in them, nobody can say. 'Arrest for breaking orders!' answers
+Friedrich, doubting or disbelieving the horses; and loud Trenck is
+packed over the Hills to Glatz; to Governor Fouquet, or Substitute;
+--where, by not submitting and repenting, by resisting and
+rebelling, and ever again doing it, he makes out for himself, with
+Fouquet and his other Governors, what kind of life we know!
+'GARDEZ E'TROITEMENT CE DROLE-LA, IL A VOULU DEVENIR PANDOUR AUPRES
+DE SON ONCLE (Keep a tight hold of this fine fellow; he wanted to
+become Pandour beside his Uncle)!' writes Friedrich:--'Uncle'
+instead of 'Cousin,' all one to Friedrich. This he writes with his
+own hand, on the margin: 28th June, 1745; the inexorable Records
+fix that date. [Rodenbeck. iii. 381. Copy of the Warrant, once
+PENES ME.] Which I should not mention, except for another
+inexorable date (30th September), that is coming; and the
+perceptible slight comfort there will be in fixing down a loud-
+blustering, extensively fabulous blockhead, still fit for the
+Nurseries, to one undeniable premeditated lie, and tar-marking him
+therewith, for benefit of more serious readers." As shall be done,
+were the 30th of September come!
+
+Here is still something,--if it be not rather nothing, by a great
+hand! Date uncertain; Camp-of-Chlum time, pretty far on: ...
+"There are continual foragings, on both sides; with parties
+mutually dashing out to hinder the same. The Prussians have a
+detached post at Smirzitz; which is much harassed by Hungarians
+lurking about, shooting our sentry and the like. An inventive head
+contrives this expedient. Stuff a Prussian uniform with straw;
+fix it up, by aid of ropes and check-strings, to stand with musket
+shouldered, and even to glide about to right and left, on judicious
+pulling. So it is done: straw man is made; set upon his ropes, when
+the Tolpatches approach; and pensively saunters to and fro,--his
+living comrades crouching in the bushes near by. Tolpatches fire on
+the walking straw sentry; straw sentry falls flat; Tolpatches rush
+in, esurient, triumphant; are exploded in a sharp blast of musketry
+from the bushes all round, every wounded man made prisoner;--and
+come no more back to that post." Friedrich himself records this
+little fact: "slight pleasantry to relieve the reader's mind," says
+he, in narrating it. [<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> iii. 123.]
+--Enough of those small matters, while so many large are waiting.
+
+June 26th, a month before Chlum, General Nassau had been detached,
+with some 8 or 10,000, across Glatz Country, into Upper Silesia, to
+sweep that clear again. Hautcharmoi, quitting the Frontier Towns,
+has joined, raising him to 15,000; and Nassau is giving excellent
+account of the multitudinous Pandour doggeries there; and will
+retake Kosel, and have Upper Silesia swept before very long.
+[Kosel, "September 5th:" Excellent, lucid and even entertaining
+Account of Nassau's Expedition, in the form of DIARY (a model, of
+its kind), in <italic> Feldzuge, <end italic> iv. 257, 371, 532.]
+On the other hand, the Election matter (KAISERWAHL, a most
+important point) is obviously in threatening, or even in desperate
+state! That famed Middle-Rhine Army has gone to the--what shall
+we say?
+
+JULY 5th-19th, MIDDLE-RHINE COUNTRY. "The first Election-news that
+reaches Friedrich is from the Middle-Rhine Country, and of very bad
+complexion. Readers remember Traun, and his Bathyanis, and his
+intentions upon Conti there. In the end of May, old Traun, things
+being all completed in Bavaria, had got on march with his Bavarian
+Army, say 40,000, to look into Prince Conti down in those parts;
+a fact very interesting to the Prince. Traun held leftward,
+westward, as if for the Neckar Valley,--'Perhaps intending to be
+through upon Elsass, in those southern undefended portions of the
+Rhine?' Conti, and his Segur, and Middle-Rhine Army stood
+diligently on their guard; got their forces, defences, apparatuses,
+hurried southward, from Frankfurt quarter where they lay on watch,
+into those Neckar regions. Which seen to be done, Traun whirled
+rapidly to rightward, to northward; crossed the Mayn at Wertheim,
+wholly leaving the Neckar and its Conti; having weighty business
+quite in the other direction,--on the north side of the Mayn,
+namely; on the Kinzig River, where Bathyani (who has taken
+D'Ahremberg's command below Frankfurt, and means to bestir himself
+in another than the D'Ahremberg fashion) is to meet him on a set
+day. Traun having thus, by strategic suction, pulled the Middle-
+Rhine Army out of his and Bathyani's way, hopes they two will
+manage a junction on the Kinzig; after junction they will be a
+little stronger than Conti, though decidedly weaker taken one by
+one. Traun, in the long June days, had such a march, through the
+Spessart Forest (Mayn River to his left, with our old friends
+Dettingen, Aschaffenburg, far down in the plain), as was hardly
+ever known before: pathless wildernesses, rocky steeps and chasms;
+the sweltering June sun sending down the upper snows upon him in
+the form of muddy slush; so that 'the infantry had to wade haunch-
+deep in many of the hollow parts, and nearly all the cavalry lost
+its horse-shoes.' A strenuous march; and a well-schemed. For at the
+Kinzig River (Conti still far off in the Neckar country), Bathyani
+punctually appeared, on the opposite shore; and Traun and he took
+camp together; July 5th, at Langen-Selbord (few miles north of
+Hanau, which we know);--and rest there; calculating that Conti is
+now a manageable quantity;--and comfortably wait till the Grand-
+Duke arrives. [Adelung, iv. 421; v. 36.] For this is,
+theoretically, HIS Army; Grand-Duke Franz being the Commander's
+Cloak, this season; as Karl was last,--a right lucky Cloak he,
+while Traun lurked under him, not so lucky since! July 13th, Franz
+arrived; and Traun, under Franz, instantly went into Conti (now
+again in those Frankfurt parts); clutched at Conti, Briareus-like,
+in a multiform alarming manner: so that Conti lost head; took to
+mere retreating, rushing about, burning bridges;--and in fine, July
+19th, had flung himself bodily across the Rhine (clouds of
+Tolpatches sticking to him), and left old Traun and his Grand-Duke
+supreme lord in those parts. Who did NOT invade Elsass, as was now
+expected; but lay at Heidelberg, intending to play pacifically a
+surer card. All French are out of Teutschland again; and the
+game given up. In what a premature and shameful manner!
+thinks Friedrich.
+
+"Nominally it was the Grand-Duke that flung Conti over the Rhine;
+and delivered Teutschland from its plagues. After which fine feat,
+salvatory to the Cause of Liberty, and destructive to French
+influence, what is to prevent his election to the Kaisership?
+Friedrich complains aloud: 'Conti has given it up; you drafted
+15,000 from him (for imaginary uses in the Netherlands),--you have
+given it up, then! Was that our bargain?' 'We have given it up,'
+answers D'Argenson the War-minister, writing to Valori; 'but,'--
+And supplies, instead of performance according to the laws of fact,
+eloquent logic; very superfluous to Friedrich and the said laws!--
+Valori, and the French Minister at Dresden, had again been trying
+to stir up the Polish Majesty to stand for Kaiser; but of course
+that enterprise, eager as the Polish Majesty might be for such a
+dignity, had now to collapse, and become totally hopeless. A new
+offer of Friedrich's to co-operate had been refused by Bruhl, with
+a brevity, a decisiveness--'Thinks me finished (AUX ABOIS),' says
+Friedrich; 'and not worth giving terms to, on surrendering!'
+The foolish little creature; insolent in the wrong quarter!"
+[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> iii. 128.]
+
+'The German Burden, then,--which surely was mutual, at lowest, and
+lately was French altogether,--the French have thrown it off;
+the French have dropped their end of the BEARING-POLES (so to
+speak), and left Friedrich by himself, to stand or stagger, under
+the beweltered broken harness-gear and intolerable weight! That is
+one's payment for cutting the rope from their neck last year!--
+Long since, while the present Campaign was being prepared for,
+under such financial pressures, Friedrich had bethought him,
+"The French might, at least give me money, if they can nothing
+else?"--and he had one day penned a Letter with that object;
+but had thrown it into his desk again, "No; not till the very last
+extremity, that!" Friedrich did at last despatch the unpleasant
+missive: "Service done you in Elsass, let us say little of it;
+but the repayment has been zero hitherto: your Bavarian expenses
+(poor Kaiser gone, and Peace of Fussen come!) are now ended:--
+A round sum, say of 600,000 pounds, is becoming indispensable here,
+if we are to keep on our feet at all!" Herr Ranke, who has seen the
+Most Christian King's response (though in a capricious way), finds
+"three or four successive redactions" of the difficult passage;
+all painfully meaning, "Impossible, alas!"--painfully adding, "We
+will try, however!" And, after due cunctations, Friedrich waiting
+silent the while,--Louis, Most Christian King, who had failed in so
+many things towards Friedrich, does empower Valori To offer him a
+subsidy of 600,000 livres a month, till we see farther.
+Twenty thousand pounds a month; he hopes this will suffice, being
+himself run terribly low. Friedrich's feeling is to be guessed:
+"Such a dole might answer to a Landgraf of Hessen-Darmstadt; but to
+me is not in the least suitable;"--and flatly refuses it;
+FIEREMENT, says Valori. [Ranke, iii. 235, 299 n. (not the least of
+DATE allowed us in either case); Valori. i. 240.]
+
+MON GROS VALORI, who could not himself help all this, poor soul,
+"falls now into complete disgrace;" waits daily upon Friedrich at
+the giving out of the parole, "but frequently his Majesty does not
+speak to me at all." Hardly looks at me, or only looks as if I had
+suddenly become Zero Incarnate. It is now in these days, I suppose,
+that Friedrich writes about the "Scamander Battle" (of Fontenoy),
+and "Capture of Pekin," by way of helping one to fight the
+Austrians according to Treaty. And has a touch of bitter sarcasm in
+uttering his complaints against, such treatment,--the heart of him,
+I suppose, bitter enough. Most Christian King has felt this of the
+Scamander, Friedrich perceives; Louis's next letter testifies
+pique;--and of course we are farther from help, on that side, than
+ever. "From the STANDE of the Kur-Mark [Brandenburg] Friedrich was
+offered a considerable subsidy instead; and joyfully accepted the
+same, 'as a loan:'"--paid it punctually back, too; and never, all
+his days, forgot it of those STANDE. [Stenzel, iv. 255; Ranke, &c.]
+
+
+    CAMP OF DIESKAU: BRITANNIC MAJESTY MAKES PEACE, FOR HIMSELF,
+          WITH FRIEDRICH; BUT CANNOT FOR AUSTRIA OR SAXONY.
+
+About the middle of August, there are certain Saxon phenomena which
+awaken dread expectation in the world. Friedrich, watching, Argus-
+like, near and far, in his Chlum observatory, has noticed that
+Prince Karl is getting reinforced in Konigsgratz; 10,000 lately,
+7,000 more coming;--and contrariwise that the Saxons seem to be
+straggling off from him; ebbing away, corps after corps,--towards
+Saxony, can it be? There are whispers of "Bavarian auxiliaries"
+being hired for them, too. And little Bruhl's late insolence;
+Bruhl's evident belief that "we are finished (AUX ABOIS)"?
+Putting all this together, Friedrich judges--with an indignation
+very natural--that there is again some insidious Saxon mischief,
+most likely an attack on Brandenburg, in the wind. Friedrich orders
+the Old Dessauer, "March into them, delay no longer!" and publishes
+a clangorously indignant Manifesto (evidently his own writing, and
+coming from the heart): [In Adelung, v. 64-71 (no date; "middle of
+August," say the Books).] "How they have, not bound by their
+Austrian Treaty, wantonly invaded our Silesia; have, since and
+before, in spite of our forbearance, done so many things:--and, in
+fact, have finally exhausted our patience; and are forcing us to
+seek redress and safety by the natural methods," which they will
+see how they like!--
+
+Old Leopold advances straightway, as bidden, direct for the Saxon
+frontier. To whom Friedrich shoots off detachments,--Prince
+Dietrich, with so many thousands, to reinforce Papa; then General
+Gessler with so many,--till Papa is 30,000 odd; and could eat
+Saxony at a mouthful; nothing whatever being yet ready there on
+Bruhl's part, though he has such immense things in the wind!--
+Nevertheless Friedrich again paused; did not yet strike. The Saxon
+question has Russian bug-bears, no end of complications.
+His Britannic Majesty, now at Hanover, and his prudent Harrington
+with him, are in the act of laboring, with all earnestness, for a
+general Agreement with Friedrich. Without farther bitterness,
+embroilment and bloodshed: how much preferable for Friedrich!
+Old Dessauer, therefore, pauses: "Camp of Dieskau," which we have
+often heard of, close on the Saxon Border; stands there, looking
+over, as with sword drawn, 30,000 good swords,--but no stroke, not
+for almost three months more. In three months, wretched Bruhl had
+not repented; but, on the contrary, had completed his preparations,
+and gone to work;--and the stroke did fall, as will be seen.
+That is Bruhl's posture in the matter. [Ranke, iii. 231, 314.]
+
+To Britannic George, for a good while past, it has been manifest
+that the Pragmatic Sanction, in its original form, is an extinct
+object; that reconquest of Silesia, and such like, is melancholy
+moonshine; and that, in fact, towards fighting the French with
+effect, it is highly necessary to make peace with Friedrich of
+Prussia again. This once more is George's and his Harrington's
+fixed view. Friedrich's own wishes are known, or used to be, ever
+since the late Kaiser's death,--though latterly he has fallen
+silent, and even avoids the topic when offered (knowing his man)!
+Herrington has to apply formally to Friedrich's Minister at
+Hanover. "Very well, if they are in earnest this time," so
+Friedrich instructs his Minister: "My terms are known to you;
+no change admissible in the terms;--do not speak with me on it
+farther: and, observe, within four weeks, the thing finished, or
+else broken off!" [Ranke, iii. 277-281.] And in this sense they are
+laboring incessantly, with Austria, with Saxony,--without the least
+success;--and Excellency Robinson has again a panting uncomfortable
+time. Here is a scene Robinson transacts at Vienna, which gives us
+a curious face-to-face glimpse of her Hungarian Majesty, while
+Friedrich is in his Camp at Chlum.
+
+
+       SCHONBRUNN, 2d AUGUST, 1745, ROBINSON HAS AUDIENCE OF
+                      HER HUNGARIAN MAJESTY.
+
+Robinson, in a copious sonorous speech (rather apt to be copious,
+and to fall into the Parliamentary CANTO-FERMO), sets forth how
+extremely ill we Allies are faring on the French hand; nothing done
+upon Silesia either; a hopeless matter that,--is it not, your
+Majesty? And your Majesty's forces all lying there, in mere dead-
+lock; and we in such need of bhem! "Peace with Prussia is
+indispensable."--To which her Majesty listened, in statuesque
+silence mostly; "never saw her so reserved before, my Lord." ...
+
+ROBINSON. ... "'Madam, the Dutch will be obliged to accept
+Neutrality' [and plump down again, after such hoisting]!
+
+QUEEN. "'Well, and if they did, they? "It would be easier to
+accommodate with France itself, and so finish the whole matter,
+than with Prussia." My Army could not get to the Netherlands this
+season. No General of mine would undertake conducting it at this
+day of the year. Peace with Prussia, what good could it do
+at present?'
+
+ROBINSON. "'England has already found, for subsidies, this year,
+1,178,753 pounds. Cannot go on at that rate. Peace with Prussia is
+one of the returns the English Nation expects for all it has done.'
+
+QUEEN. "'I must have Silesia again: without Silesia the Kaiserhood
+were an empty title. "Or would you have us administer it under the
+guardiancy of Prussia!"' ...
+
+ROBINSON. "'In Bohemia itself things don't look well; nothing done
+on Friedrich: your Saxons seem to be qnarrelling with you, and
+going home.'
+
+QUEEN. "'Prince Karl is himself capable of fighting the Prussians
+again. Till that, do not speak to me of Peace! Grant me only
+till October!'
+
+ROBINSON. "'Prussia will help the Grand-Duke to Kaisership.'
+
+QUEEN. "'The Grand-Duke is not so ambitions of an empty honor as to
+engage in it under the tutelage of Prussia. Consider farther:
+the Imperial dignity, is it compatible with the fatal deprivation
+of Silesia? "One other battle, I say! Good God, give me only till
+the month of October!"'
+
+ROBINSON. "'A battle, Madam, if won, won't reconquer Silesia;
+if lost, your Majesty is ruined at home.'
+
+QUEEN. "'DUSSE'JE CONCLURE AVEC LUI LE LENDEMAIN, JE LUI LIVRERAIS
+BATAILLE CE SOIR (Had I to agree with him to-morrow, I would try
+him in a battle this evening)!'" [Robinson's Despatch, 4th August,
+1745. Ranke, iii. 287; Raumer, pp. 161, 162.]
+
+Her Majesty is not to be hindered; deaf to Robinson, to her
+Britannic George who pays the money. "Cruel man, is that what you
+call keeping the Pragmatic Sanction; dismembering me of Province
+after Province, now in Germany, then in Italy, on pretext of
+necessity? Has not England money, then? Does not England love the
+Cause of Liberty? Give me till October!" Her Majesty did take till
+October, and later, as we shall see; poor George not able to
+hinder, by power of the purse or otherwise: who can hinder high
+females, or low, when they get into their humors? Much of this
+Austrian obstinacy, think impartial persons, was of female nature.
+We shall see what profit her Majesty made by taking till October.
+
+As for George, the time being run, and her Majesty and Saxony
+unpersuadable, he determined to accept Friedrich's terms himself,
+in hope of gradually bringing the others to do it. August 26th, at
+Hanover, there is signed a CONVENTION OF HANOVER between Friedrich
+and him: "Peace on the old Breslau-Berlin terms,--precisely the
+same terms, but Britannic Majesty to have them guaranteed by All
+the Powers, on the General Peace coming,--so that there be no
+snake-procedure henceforth." Silesia Friedrich's without fail, dear
+Hanover unmolested even by a thought of Friedrich's;--and her
+Hungarian Majesty to be invited, nay urged by every feasible
+method, to accede. [Adelung, v. 75; is "in Rousset, xix. 441;"
+in &c. &c.] Which done, Britannic Majesty--for there has hung
+itself out, in the Scotch Highlands, the other day ("Glenfinlas,
+August 12th"), a certain Standard "TANDEM TRIUMPHANS," and
+unpleasant things are imminent!--hurries home at his best pace, and
+has his hands full there, for some time. On Austria, on Saxony, he
+could not prevail: "By no manner of means!" answered they; and went
+their own road,--jingling his Britannic subsidies in their pocket;
+regardless of the once Supreme Jove, who is sunk now to a very
+different figure on the German boards.
+
+Friedrich's outlook is very bad: such a War to go on, and not even
+finance to do it with. His intimates, his Rothenburg one time, have
+"found him sunk in gloomy thought." But he wears a bright face
+usually. No wavering or doubting in him, his mind made up; which is
+a great help that way. Friedrich indicates, and has indicated
+everywhere, for many months, that Peace, precisely on the old
+footing, is all he wants: "The Kaiser being dead, whom I took up
+arms to defend, what farther object is there?" says he.
+"Renounce Silesia, more honestly than last time; engage to have it
+guaranteed by everybody at the General Peace (or perhaps
+Hohenfriedberg will help to guarantee it),--and I march home!"
+My money is running down, privately thinks he; guarantee Silesia,
+and I shall be glad to go. If not, I must raise money somehow; melt
+the big silver balustrades at Berlin, borrow from the STANDE, or do
+something; and, in fact, must stand here, unless Silesia is
+guaranteed, and struggle till I die.
+
+That latter withal is still privately Friedrich's thought. Under
+his light air, he carries unspoken that grimly clear determination,
+at all times, now and henceforth; and it is an immense help to the
+guidance of him. An indispensable, indeed. No king or man,
+attempting anything considerable in this world, need expect to
+achieve it except, tacitly, on those same terms, "I will achieve it
+or die!" For the world, in spite of rumors to the contrary, is
+always much of a bedlam to the sanity (so far as he may have any)
+of every individual man. A strict place, moreover; its very
+bedlamisms flowing by law, as do alike the sudden mud- deluges, and
+the steady Atlantic tides, and all things whatsoever: a world
+inexorable, truly, as gravitation itself;--and it will behoove you
+to front it in a similar humor, as the tacit basis for whatever
+wise plans you lay. In Friedrich, from the first entrance of him on
+the stage of things, we have had to recognize this prime quality,
+in a fine tacit form, to a complete degree; and till his last exit,
+we shall never find it wanting. Tacit enough, unconscious almost,
+not given to articulate itself at all;--and if there be less of
+piety than we could wish in the silence of it, there is at least no
+play-actor mendacity, or cant of devoutness, to poison the high
+worth of it. No braver little figure stands on the Earth at that
+epoch. Ready, at the due season, with his mind silently made
+up;--able to answer diplomatic Robinsons, Bartensteins and the very
+Destinies when they apply. If you will withdraw your snakish
+notions, will guarantee Silesia, will give him back his old Treaty
+of Berlin in an irrefragable shape, he will march home; if not, he
+will never march home, but be carried thither dead rather. That is
+his intention, if the gods permit.
+
+     GRAND-DUKE FRANZ IS ELECTED KAISER (13TH SEPTEMBER, 1745);    
+         FRIEDRICH, THE SEASON AND FORAGE BEING DONE, MAKES     
+                           FOR SILESIA.
+
+There occurred at Frankfurt--the clear majority, seven of the nine
+Electors, Bavaria itself (nay Bohemia this time, "distaff" or not),
+and all the others but Friedrich and Kur-Pfalz, being so disposed
+or so disposable, Traun being master of the ground--no difficulty
+about electing Grand-Duke Franz Stephan of Tuscany? Joint-King of
+Bohemia, to be Kaiser of the Holy Romish Reich. Friedrich's envoy
+protested;--as did Kur-Pfalz's, with still more vehemence, and then
+withdrew to Hanau: the other Seven voted September 13th 1745: and
+it was done. A new Kaiser, Franz Stephan, or Franz I.,--with our
+blessing on him, if that can avail much. But I fear it cannot. Upon
+such mendacious Empty-Case of Kaiserhood, without even money to
+feed itself, not to speak of governing, of defending and coercing;
+upon such entities the blessings of man avail little; the gods,
+having warned them to go, do not bless them for staying! --However,
+tar-barrels burn, the fountains play (wine in some of them, I
+hope); Franz is to be crowned in a fortnight hence, with
+extraordinary magnificence. At this last part of it Maria Theresa
+will, in her own high person, attend; and proceeds accordingly
+towards Frankfurt, in the end of September (say the old Books), so
+soon as the Election is over.
+
+Hungarian Majesty's bearing was not popular there, according to
+Friedrich,--who always admires her after a sort, and always speaks
+of her like a king and gentleman:--but the High Lady, it is
+intimated, felt somewhat too well that she was high. Not sorry to
+have it known, under the due veils, that her Kaiser-Husband is but
+of a mimetic nature; that it is she who has the real power; and
+that indeed she is in a victorious posture at present. Very high in
+her carriage towards the Princes of the Reich, and their
+privileges:--poor Kur-Pfalz's notary, or herald, coming to protest
+(I think, it was the second time) about something, she quite
+disregarded his tabards, pasteboards, or whatever they were, and
+clapt him in prison. The thing was commented upon; but Kur-Pfalz
+got no redress. Need we repeat,--lazy readers having so often met
+him, and forgotten him again,--this is a new younger Kur-Pfalz:
+Karl Theodor, this one; not Friedrich Wilhelm's old Friend, but his
+Successor, of the Sulzbach line; of whom, after thirty years or so,
+we may again hear. He can complain about his violated tabard; will
+get his notary out of jail again, but no redress.
+
+Highish even towards her friends, this "Empress-Queen"
+(KAISERIN-KONIGIN, such her new title), and has a kind of
+"Thank-you-for-
+Nothing" air towards them. Prussian Majesty, she said, had
+unquestionable talents; but, oh, what a character! Too much levity,
+she said, by far; heterodox too, in the extreme; a BOSER MANN;--and
+what a neighbor has he been! As to Silesia, she was heard to say,
+she would as soon part with her petticoat as part with it.
+[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> iii. 126, 128.]--
+So that there is not the least prospect of peace here? "None,"
+answer Friedrich's emissaries, whom he had empowered to hint the
+thing. Which is heavy news to Friedrich.
+
+Early in August, not long after that Audience of Robinson's, her
+Majesty, after repeated written messages to Prince Karl, urging him
+to go into fight again or attempt something, had sent two high
+messengers: Prince Lobkowitz, Duke d'Ahremberg, high dignitaries
+from Court, have come to Konigsgratz with the latest urgencies, the
+newest ideas; and would fain help Prince Karl to attempt something.
+Daily they used to come out upon a little height, in view of
+Friedrich's tent, and gaze in upon him, and round all Nature, "with
+big tubes," he says, "as if they had been astronomers;" but never
+attempted anything. We remember D'Ahremberg, and what part he has
+played, from the Dettingen times and onward. "A debauched old
+fellow," says Friedrich; "gone all to hebetude by his labors in
+that line; agrees always with the last speaker." Prince Karl seems
+to have little stomach himself; and does not see his way into (or
+across) another Battle. Lobkowitz, again, is always saying:
+"Try something! We are now stronger than they, by their detachings,
+by our reinforcings" (indeed, about twice their number, regular and
+irregular), though most of the Saxons are gone home. After much
+gazing through their tubes, the Austrians (August 23d) do make a
+small shift of place, insignificant otherwise; the Prussians, next
+day, do the like, in consequence; quit Chlum, burning their huts;
+post themselves a little farther up the Elbe,--their left at a
+place called Jaromirz, embouchure of the Aupa into Elbe,
+[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> iii. 129.]--and are
+again unattackable.
+
+The worst fact is the multitude of Pandours, more and more
+infesting our provision-roads; and that horse-forage itself is, at
+last, running low. Detachments lie all duly round to right and
+left, to secure our communications with Silesia, especially to
+left, out of Glatz, where runs one of the chief roads we have.
+But the service is becoming daily more difficult. For example:--
+
+"NEUSTADT, 8th SEPTEMBER. In that left-hand quarter, coming out of
+Glatz at a little Bohemian Town called Neustadt, the Prussian
+Commander, Tauenzien by name, was repeatedly assaulted; and from
+September 8th, had to stand actual siege, gallantly repulsing a
+full 10,000 with their big artillery, though his walls were all
+breached, for about a week, till Friedrich sent him relief.
+Prince Lobkowitz, our old anti-Belleisle friend, who is always of
+forward fiery humor, had set them on this enterprise; which has
+turned out fruitless. The King is much satisfied with Tauenzien;
+[Ib. 132.] of whom we shall hear again. Who indeed becomes notable
+to us, were it only for getting one Lessing as secretary, by and
+by: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, whose fame has since gone into all
+countries; the man having been appointed a 'Secretary' to the very
+Destinies, in some sort; that is to say, a Writer of Books which
+have turned out to have truth in them! Tauenzien, a grimmish
+aquiline kind of man, of no superfluous words, has distinguished
+himself for the present by defending Neustadt, which the Austrians
+fully counted to get hold of."
+
+Let us give another little scene; preparatory to quitting this
+Country, as it is evident the King and we will soon have to do;
+Country being quite eaten out, Pandours getting ever rifer, and the
+Season done:--
+
+JAROMIRZ, "EARLY IN SEPTEMBER," 1745. "Jaromirz is a little
+Bohemian Town on the Aupa, or between the Aupa and Metau branches
+of the Upper Elbe; four or five miles north of Semonitz, where
+Friedrich's quarter now is. Valori, so seldom spoken to, is lodged
+in a suburb there: 'Had not you better go into the town itself?'
+his Majesty did once say; but Valori, dreading nothing, lodged on,
+--'Landlord a Burgher whom I thought respectable.' Respectable, yes
+he; but his son had been dealing with Franquini the Pandour, and
+had sold Valori,--night appointed, measures all taken; a miracle if
+Valori escape. Franquini, chief of 30,000 Pandours, has come in
+person to superintend this important capture; and lies hidden, with
+a strong party, in the woods to rearward. Prussians about 200,
+scattered in posts, occupy the hedges in front, for guard of the
+ovens; to rear, Jaromirz being wholly ours, there is no suspicion.
+
+"In the dead of the night, Franquini emerges from the woods;
+sends forward a party of sixty, under the young Judas; who, by
+methods suitable, gets them stealthily conducted into Papa's Barn,
+which looks across a courtyard into Valori's very windows. From the
+Barn it is easy, on paws of velvet, to get into the House, if you
+have a Judas to open it. Which you have:--bolts all drawn for you,
+and even beams ready for barricading if you be meddled with.
+'Upstairs is his Excellency asleep; Excellency's room is--to right,
+do you remember; or to left'--'Pshaw, we shall find it!'
+The Pandours mount; find a bedroom, break it open,--some fifteen or
+sixteen of them, and one who knows a little French;--come crowding
+forward: to the horror and terror of the poor inhabitant.'
+'QUE VOULEZ-VOUS DONC?' 'His Excellency Valori!' 'Well, no
+violence; I am your prisoner: let me dress!' answers the supposed
+Excellency,--and contrives to secrete portfolios, and tear or make
+away with papers. And is marched off, under a select guard, who
+leave the rest to do the pillage. And was not Valori at all;
+was Valori's Secretary, one D'Arget, who had called himself Valori
+on this dangerous occasion! Valori sat quaking behind his
+partition; not till the Pandours began plundering the stables did
+the Prussian sentry catch sound of them, and plunge in."
+
+Friedrich had his amusement out of this adventure; liked D'Arget,
+the clever Secretary; got D'Arget to himself before long, as will
+be seen;--and, in quieter times, dashed off a considerable
+Explosion of Rhyme, called LE PALLADION (Valori as Prussia's
+"Palladium," with Devils attempting to steal him, and the like),
+which was once thought an exquisite Burlesque,--Kings coveting a
+sight of it, in vain,--but is now wearisome enough to every reader.
+[Valori, i. 242; <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic>
+iii. 130: for the Fact. Exquisite Burlesque, PALLADION itself, is
+in <italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xi. 192-271 (see IB. 139): a bad
+copy of that very bad Original, JEANNE D'ARC,--the only thing now
+good in it, Friedrich's polite yet positive refusal to gratify King
+Louis and his Pompdour with a sight of it (see IB. PREFACE, x-xiv,
+Friedrich's Letter to Louis; date of request and of refusal, March,
+1750).]--Let us attend his Majesty's exit from Bohemia.
+
+
+
+                         Chapter XII.
+
+                        BATTLE OF SOHR.
+
+The famed beautiful Elbe River rises in romantic chasms, terrible
+to the picturesque beholder, at the roots of the Riesengebirge;
+overlooked by the Hohe-Kamms, and highest summits of that chain.
+"Out of eleven wells," says gentle Dulness, "EILF or ELF QUELLEN,
+whence its name, Elbe for ELF." Sure enough, it starts out of
+various wells; [Description, in Zollner, <italic> Briefe uber
+Schlesien, <end italic> ii. 305; in &c. &c.] rushes out, like a
+great peacock's or pasha's tail, from the roots of the Giant
+Mountains thereabouts; and hurries southward,--or even rather
+eastward, at first; for (except the Iser to westward, which does
+not fall in for a great while) its chief branches come from the
+eastern side: Aupa, Metau, Adler, the drainings of Glatz, and of
+that rugged Country where Friedrich has been camping and
+manoeuvring all summer. On the whole, its course is southward for
+the first seventy or eighty miles, washing Jaromirz, Konigshof,
+Konigsgratz, down to Pardubitz: at Pardubitz it turns abruptly
+westward, and holds on so, bending even northward, by hill and
+plain, through the rest of its five or six hundred miles.
+
+Its first considerable branch, on that eastern or left bank, is the
+Aupa, which rises in the Pass of Schatzlar (great struggling there,
+for convoys, just now); goes next by Trautenau, which has lately
+been burnt; and joins the Elbe at Jaromirz, where Valori was
+stolen, or nearly so, from under the Prussian left wing. The Aupa
+runs nearly straight south; the Elbe, till meeting it, has run
+rather southeast; but after joining they go south together,
+augmented by the Metau, by the Adler, down to Pardubitz, where the
+final turn to west occurs. Jaromirz, which lies in the very angle
+of Elbe and Aupa, is the left wing of Friedrich's Camp; main body
+of the Camp lies on the other side of the Elbe, but of course has
+bridges (as at Smirzitz, where that straw sentry did his pranks
+lately); bridges are indispensable, part of our provision coming
+always by that BOHEMIAN Neustadt, from the northeast quarter out of
+Silesia; though the main course of our meal (and much fighting for
+it) is direct from the north, by the Pass of Schatzlar,--
+"Chaslard," as poor Valori calls it.
+
+Thus Friedrich lay, when Valori escaped being stolen;
+when Tauenzien was assailed by the 10,000 Pandours with siege
+artillery, and stood inexpugnable in the breach till Friedrich
+relieved him. Those Pandours "had cut away his water, for the last
+two days;" so that, except for speedy relief, all valor had been in
+vain. Water being gone, not recoverable without difficulties,
+Neustadt was abandoned (September 16th, as I guess);--one of our
+main Silesian roads for meal has ceased. We have now only Schatzlar
+to depend on; where Franquini--lying westward among the glens of
+the Upper Elbe, and possessed of abundant talent in the Tolpatch
+way (witness Valori's narrow miss lately)--gives us trouble enough.
+Friedrich determines to move towards Schatzlar. Homewards, in fact;
+eating the Country well as he goes.
+
+Saturday, 18th September, Friedrich crosses the Elbe at Jaromirz.
+Entirely unopposed; the Austrians were all busy firing FEU-DE-JOIE
+for the Election of their Grand-Duke: Election done five days ago
+at Frankfurt, and the news just come. So they crackle about, and
+deliver rolling fire, at a great rate; proud to be "IMPERIAL Army"
+henceforth, as if that could do much for them. There was also vast
+dining, for three days, among the high heads, and a great deal of
+wine spent. That probably would have been the chance to undertake
+something upon them, better than crossing the Elbe, says Friedrich
+looking back. But he did not think of it in time; took second-best
+in place of best.
+
+He is now, therefore, over into that Triangular piece of Country
+between Elbe and Aupa (if readers will consult their Map); in that
+triangle, his subsequent notable operations all lie. He here
+proposes to move northward, by degrees,--through Trautenau,
+Schatzlar, and home; well eating this bit of Country too, the last
+uneaten bit, as he goes. This well eaten, there will be no harbor
+anywhere for Invasion, through the Winter coming. One of my old
+Notes says of it, in the topographic point of view:--
+
+"It is a triangular patch of Country, which has lain asleep since
+the Creation of the World; traversed only by Boii (BOI-HEIM-ERS,
+Bohemians), Czechs and other such populations, in Human History;
+but which Friedrich has been fated to make rather notable to the
+Moderns henceforth. Let me recommend it to the picturesque tourist,
+especially to the military one. Lovers of rocky precipices,
+quagmires, brawling torrents and the unadulterated ruggedness of
+Nature, will find scope there; and it was the scene of a
+distinguished passage of arms, with notable display of human
+dexterity and swift presence of mind. For the rest, one of the
+wildest, and perhaps (except to the picturesque tourist) most
+unpleasant regions in the world. Wild stony upland; topmost Upland,
+we may say, of Europe in general, or portion of such Upland;
+for the rainstorms hereabouts run several roads,--into the German
+Ocean and Atlantic by the Elbe, into the Baltic by the Oder, into
+the Black Sea by the Donau;--and it is the waste Outfield whither
+you rise, by long weeks-journeys, from many sides.
+
+"Much of it, towards the angle of Elbe and Aupa, is occupied by a
+huge waste Wood, called 'Kingdom Forest' (KONIGREICH SYLVA or WALD,
+peculium of Old Czech Majesties, I fancy); may be sixty square
+miles in area, the longer side of which lies along the Elbe.
+A Country of rocky defiles; lowish hills chaotically shoved
+together, not wanting their brooks and quagmires, straight
+labyrinthic passages; shaggy with wild wood. Some poor Hamlets here
+and there, probably the sleepiest in Nature, are scattered about;
+there may be patches ploughable for rye [modern Tourist says
+snappishly, There are many such; whole region now drained;
+reminded me of Yorkshire Highlands, with the Western Sun gilding
+it, that fine afternoon!]--ploughable for rye, buckwheat;
+boggy grass to be gathered in summer; charcoaling to do; pigs at
+least are presumable, among these straggling outposts of humanity
+in their obscure Hamlets: poor ploughing, moiling creatures, they
+little thought of becoming notable so soon! None of the Books (all
+intent on mere soldiering) take the least notice of them; not at
+the pains to spell their Hamlets right: no more notice than if they
+also had been stocks and moss-grown stones. Nevertheless, there
+they did evidently live, for thousands of years past, in a dim
+manner;--and are much terrified to have become the seat of war, all
+on a sudden. Their poor Hamlets, Sohr, Staudentz, Prausnitz,
+Burgersdorf and others still send up a faint smoke; and have in
+them, languidly, the live-coal of mysterious human existence, in
+those woods,--to judge by the last maps that have come out. A thing
+worth considering by the passing tourist, military or other."
+
+It is in this Kingdom Forest (which he calls ROYAUME DE SILVA,
+instead of SYLVA DE ROYAUME) that Friedrich now nmrches;
+keeping the body of the Forest well on his left, and skirting the
+southern and eastern sides of it. Rough marching for his Majesty;
+painfully infested by Nadastian Tolpatches; who run out on him from
+ambushes, and need to be scourged; one ambush in particular, at a
+place called Liebenthal (second day's march, and near the end of
+it),-- where our Prussian Hussars, winding like fiery dragons on
+the dangerous precipices, gave them better than they brought, and
+completely quenched their appetite for that day. After Liebenthal,
+the march soon ends; three miles farther on, at the dim wold-hamlet
+of Staudentz: here a camp is pitched; here, till the Country is
+well eaten out, or till something else occur, we propose to tarry
+for a time.
+
+Horse-forage abounds here; but there is no getting of it without
+disturbance from those dogs; you must fight for every truss of
+grass: if a meal-train is coming, as there does every five days,
+you have to detach 8,000 foot and 3,000 horse to help it safe in.
+A fretting fatiguing time for regular troops. Our bakery is at
+Trautenau,--where Valori is now lodging. The Tolpatchery, unable to
+take Trautenau, set fire to it, though it is their own town, their
+own Queen's town; thatchy Trautenau, wooden too in the upper
+stories of it, takes greedily to the fire; goes all aloft in flame,
+and then lies black. A scandalous transaction, thinks Friedrich.
+The Prussian corn lay nearly all in cellars; little got, even of
+the Prussians, by such an atrocity: and your own poor fellow-
+subjects, where are they? Valori was burnt out here; again exploded
+from his quarters, poor man;--seems to have thought it a mere fire
+in his own lodging, and that he was an unfortunate diplomatist.
+Happily he got notice (PRIVATISSIME, for no officer dare whisper in
+such cases) that there is an armed party setting out for Silesia,
+to guard meal that is coming: Valori yokes himself to this armed
+party, and gets safe over the Hills with it,--then swift, by extra
+post, to Breslau and to civilized (partially civilized)
+accommodation, for a little rest after these hustlings
+and tossings.
+
+Friedrich had lain at Staudentz, in this manner, bickering
+continually for his forage, and eating the Country, for about ten
+days: and now, as the latter process is well on, and the season
+drawing to a close: he determines on a shift northward.
+Thursday, 30th September next, let there be one other grand forage,
+the final one in this eaten tract, then northward to fresh grounds.
+That, it appears, was the design. But, on Wednesday, there came in 
+an Austrian deserter; who informs us that Prince Karl is not now in
+Konigsgratz, but in motion up the Elbe; already some fifty miles
+up; past Jaromirz: his rear at Konigshof, his van at Arnau,--on a
+level with burnt Trautenau, and farther north than we ourselves
+are. This is important news. "Intending to block us out from
+Schatzlar? Hmh!" Single scouts, or small parties, cannot live in
+this Kingdom Wood, swarming with Pandours: Friedrich sends out a
+Colonel Katzler, with 500 light horse, to investigate a little.
+Katzler pushes forward, on such lane or forest road-track as there
+is, towards Konigshof; beats back small hussar parties;--comes, in
+about an hour's space, not upon hussars merely, but upon dense
+masses of heavy horse winding through the forest lanes; and, with
+that imperfect intelligence, is obliged to return. The deserter
+spake truth, apparently; and that is all we can know. Forage scheme
+is given up; the order is, "Baggage packed, and MARCH to-morrow
+morning at ten." Long before ten, there had great things befallen
+on the morrow!--Try to understand this Note a little:--
+
+"The Camp of Staudentz- which two persons (the King, and General
+Stille, a more careful reporter, who also was an eye-witness) have
+done their best to describe--will, after all efforts, and an
+Ordnance Map to help, remain considerably unintelligible to the
+reader; as is too usual in such cases. A block of high-lying
+ground; Friedrich's Camp on it, perhaps two miles long, looks to
+the south; small Village of Staudentz in front; hollow beyond that,
+and second small Village, Deutsch Prausnitz, hanging on the
+opposite slope, with shaggy heights beyond, and the Kingdom Forest
+there beginning: on the left, defiles, brooks and strait country,
+leading towards the small town of Eypel: that is our left and front
+aspect, a hollow well isolating us on those sides. Hollow continues
+all along the front; hollow definite on our side of it, and forming
+a tolerable defence:--though again, I perceive, to rightward at no
+great distance, there rise High Grounds which considerably overhang
+us." A thing to be marked! "These we could not occupy, for want of
+men; but only maintain vedettes upon them. Over these Heights, a
+mile or two westward of this hollow of ours, runs the big winding
+hollow called Georgengrund (GEORGE'S BOTTOM), which winds up and
+down in that Kingdom Forest, and offers a road from Konigshof to
+Trautenau, among other courses it takes.
+
+"From the crown of those Heights on our right flank here, looking
+to the west, you might discern (perhaps three miles off, from one
+of the sheltering nooks in the hither side of that Georgengrund),
+rising faintly visible over knolls and dingles, the smoke of a
+little Forest Village. That Village is Sohr; notable ever since,
+beyond others, in the Kingdom Wood. Sohr, like the other Villages,
+has its lane-roads; its road to Trautenau, to Konigshof, no doubt;
+but much nearer you, on our eastern slope of the Heights, and far
+hitherward of Sohr, which is on the western, goes the great road
+[what is now the great road], from Konigshof to Trautenau, well
+visible from Friedrich's Camp, though still at some distance from
+it. Could these Heights between us and Sohr, which lie beyond the
+great road, be occupied, we were well secured; isolated on the
+right too, as on the other sides, from Kingdom Forest and its
+ambushes. 'Should have been done,' admits Friedrich; 'but then,
+as it is, there are not troops enough:' with 18,000 men you cannot
+do everything!"
+
+Here, however, is the important point. In Sohr, this night, 29th
+September, in a most private manner, the Austrians, 30,000 of them
+and more, have come gliding through the woods, without even their
+pipe lit, and with thick veil of hussars ahead! Outposts of theirs
+lie squatted in the bushes behind Deutsch Prausnitz, hardly 500
+yards from Friedrich's Camp. And eastward, leftward of him, in the
+defiles about Eypel, lie Nadasti and Ruffian Trenck, with ten or
+twelve thousand, who are to take him in rear. His "Camp of
+Staudentz" will be at a fine pass to-morrow morning. The Austrian
+Gentlemen had found, last week, a certain bare Height in the Forest
+(Height still known), from which they could use their astronomer
+tubes day after day; [Orlich, ii. 225.] and now they are about
+attempting something!
+
+Thursday morning, very early, 30th September, 1745, Friedrich was
+in his tent, busy with generals and march-routes,--when a rapid
+orderly comes in, from that Vedette, or strong Piquet, on the
+Heights to our right: "Austrians visibly moving, in quantity, near
+by!" and before he has done answering, the officer himself arrives:
+"Regular Cavalry in great force; long dust-cloud in Kingdom Forest,
+in the gray dawn; and, so far as we can judge, it is their Army
+coming on." Here is news for a poor man, in the raw of a September
+morning, by way of breakfast to him! "To arms!" is, of course,
+Friedrich's instant order; and he himself gallops to the Piquet on
+the Heights, glass in hand. "Austrian Army sure enough, thirty to
+thirty-five thousand of them, we only eighteen. [<italic> OEuvres
+de Frederic, <end italic> iii. 139.] Coming to take us on the right
+flank here; to attack our Camp by surprise: will crush us northward
+through the defiles, and trample us down in detail? Hmh! To run for
+it, will never do. We must fight for it, and even attack THEM, as
+our way is, though on such terms. Quick, a plan!" The head of
+Friedrich is a bank you cannot easily break by coming on it for
+plans: such a creature for impromptu plans, and unexpected dashes
+swift as the panther's, I have hardly known,--especially when you
+squeeze him into a corner, and fancy he is over with it!
+Friedrich gallops down, with his plan clear enough; and already the
+Austrians, horse and foot, are deploying upon those Heights he has
+quitted; Fifty Squadrons of Horse for left wing to them, and a
+battery of Twenty-eight big Guns is establishing itself where
+Friedrich's Piquet lately stood.
+
+Friedrich's right flank has to become his front, and face those
+formidable Austrian Heights and Batteries; and this with more than
+Prussian velocity, and under the play of those twenty-eight big
+guns, throwing case-shot (GRENADES ROYALES) and so forth, all the
+while. To Valori, when he heard of the thing, it is inconceivable
+how mortal troops could accomplish such a movement;
+Friedrich himself praises it, as a thing honorably well done.
+Took about half an hour; case-shot raining all the while;
+soldier honorably never-minding: no flurry, though a speed like
+that of spinning-tops. And here we at length are, Staudentz now to
+rear of us, behind our centre a good space; Burgersdorf in front of
+us to right, our left reaching to Prausnitz: Austrian lines, three
+deep of them, on the opposite Height; we one line only, which
+matches them in length.
+
+They, that left wing of horse, should have thundered down on us,
+attacking us, not waiting our attack, thinks Friedrich; but they
+have not done it. They stand on their height there, will perhaps
+fire carbines, as their wont is. "You, Buddenbrock, go into them
+with your Cuirassiers!" Buddenbrock and the Cuirassiers, though it
+is uphill, go into them at a furious rate; meet no countercharge,
+mere sputter of carbines;--tumble them to mad wreck, back upon
+their second line, back upon their third: absurdly crowded there on
+their narrow height, no room to manoeuvre; so that they plunge,
+fifty squadrons of them, wholly into the Georgengrund rearward,
+into the Kingdom Wood, and never come on again at all.
+Buddenbrock has done his job right well.
+
+Seeing which, our Infantry of the right wing, which stood next to
+Buddenbrock, made impetuous charge uphill, emulous to capture that
+Battery of Twenty-eight; but found it, for some time, a terrible
+attempt. These Heights are not to be called "hills," still less
+"mountains" (as in some careless Books); but it is a stiff climb at
+double-quick, with twenty-eight big guns playing in the face of
+you. Storms of case-shot shear away this Infantry, are quenching
+its noble fury in despair; Infantry visibly recoiling, when our
+sole Three Regiments of Reserve hurry up to support. Round these
+all rallies; rushes desperately on, and takes the Battery,--of
+course, sending the Austrian left wing rapidly adrift, on loss of
+the same.
+
+This, I consider, is the crisis of the Fight; the back of the
+Austrian enterprise is already broken, by this sad winging of it on
+the left. But it resists still; comes down again,--the reserve of
+their left wing seen rapidly making for Burgersdorf, intending an
+attack there; which we oppose with vigor, setting Burgersdorf on
+fire for temporary screen; and drive the Austrian reserve rapidly
+to rearward again. But there is rally after rally of them.
+They rank again on every new height, and dispute there; loath to be
+driven into Kingdom Wood, after such a flourish of arms.
+One height, "bushy steep height," the light-limbed valiant Prince,
+little Ferdinand of Brunswick, had the charge of attacking; and he
+did it with his usual impetus and irresistibility:--and, strangely
+enough, the defender of it chanced to be that Brother of his,
+Prince Ludwig, with whom he had the little Interview lately.
+Prince Ludwig got a wound, as well as lost his height. The third
+Brother, poor Prince Albrecht, who is also here, as volunteer
+apprentice, on the Prussian side, gets killed. There will never be
+another Interview, for all three, between the Camps! Strange times
+for those poor Princes, who have to seek soldiering for
+their existence.
+
+Meanwhile the Cavalry of Buddenbrock, that is to say of the right
+wing, having now no work in that quarter, is despatched to
+reinforce the left wing, which has stood hitherto apart on its own
+ground; not attacked or attacking,--a left wing REFUSED, as the
+soldiers style it. Reinforced by Buddenbrock, this left wing of
+horse does now also storm forward;--"near the Village of Prausnitz"
+(Prausnitz a little way to rear of it), thereabouts, is the scene
+of its feat. Feat done in such fashion that the Austrians opposite
+will not stand the charge at all; but gurgle about in a chaotic
+manner; then gallop fairly into Kingdom Wood, without stroke
+struck; and disappear, as their fellows had done. Whereupon the
+Prussian horse breaks in upon the adjoining Infantry of that flank
+(Austrian right flank, left bare in this manner); champs it also
+into chaotic whirlpools; cuts away an outskirt of near 2,000
+prisoners, and sets the rest running. This seems to have been
+pretty much the COUP-DE-GRACE of the Fight; and to have brought the
+Austrian dispute to finis. From the first, they had rallied on the
+heights; had struggled and disputed. Two general rallies they made,
+and various partial, but none had any success. They were driven on,
+bayonet in back, as the phrase is: with this sad slap on their
+right, added to that old one on their left, what can they now do
+but ebb rapidly; pour in cataracts into Kingdom Wood, and disappear
+there? [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> iii. 135-143;
+Stille, pp. 144-163; Orlich, ii. 227-243; <italic> Feldzuge, <end
+italic>  i. 357, 363, 374.]
+
+Prince Karl's scheme was good, says Friedrich; but it was ill
+executed. He never should have let us form; his first grand fault
+was that he waited to be attacked, instead of attacking. Parts of
+his scheme were never executed at all. Duke d'Ahremberg, for
+instance, it is said, had so dim a notion of the ground, that he
+drew up some miles off, with his back to the Prussians. Such is the
+rumor,--perhaps only a rumor, in mockery of the hebetated old
+gentleman fallen unlucky? On the other hand, that Nadasti made a
+failure which proved important, is indubitable. Nadasti, with some
+thousands of Tolpatchery, was at Liebenthal, four miles to
+southeast of the action; Ruffian Trenck lay behind Eypel, perhaps
+as far to east, of it: Trenck and Nadasti were to rendezvous, to
+unite, and attack the Prussian Camp on its rear,--"Camp," so ran
+the order, for it was understood the Prussians would all be there,
+we others attacking it in front and both flanks;--which turned out
+otherwise, not for Nadasti alone!
+
+Nadasti came to his rendezvous in time; Ruffian Trenck did not:
+Nadasti grew tired of waiting for Trenck, and attacked the Camp by
+himself:--Camp, but not any men; Camp being now empty, and the men
+all fighting, ranked at right angles to it, furlongs and miles
+away. Nadasti made a rare hand of the Camp; plundered everything,
+took all the King's Camp-furniture, ready money, favorite dog
+Biche,--likewise poor Eichel his Secretary, who, however, tore the
+papers first. Tolpatchery exultingly gutted the Camp; and at last
+set fire to it,--burnt even some eight or ten poor Prussian sick,
+and also "some women whom they caught. We found the limbs of these
+poor men and women lying about," reports old General Lehwald;
+who knew about it. A doggery well worthy of the gallows, think
+Lehwald and I. "Could n't help it; ferocity of wild men," says
+Nadasti. "Well; but why not attack, then, with your ferocity?"
+Confused Court-martial put these questions, at Vienna subsequently;
+and Ruffian Trenck, some say, got injustice, Nadasti shuffling
+things upon him; for which one cares almost nothing. Lehwald, lying
+at Trautenau, had heard the firing at sunrise; and instantly
+marched to help: he only arrived to give Nadasti a slash or two,
+and was too late for the Fight. Oue Schlichtling, on guard with a
+weak party, saved what was in the right wing of the Camp,--small
+thanks to him, the Main Fight being so near: Friedrich's opinion
+is, an Officer, in Schlichtling's place, ought to have done more,
+and not have been so helpless.
+
+This was the Battle of Sohr; so called because the Austrians had
+begun there, and the Prussians ended there. The Prussian pursuit
+drew bridle at that Village; unsafe to prosecute Austrians farther,
+now in the deeps of Kingdom Forest. The Battle has lasted five
+hours. It must be now getting towards noon; and time for breakfast,
+if indeed any were to be had; but that is next to impossible,
+Nadasti having been so busy. Not without extreme difficulty is a
+manchet of bread, with or without a drop of wine, procured for the
+King's Majesty this day. Many a tired hero will have nothing but
+tobacco, with spring-water, to fall back upon. Never mind! says the
+King, says everybody. After all, it is a cheap price to pay for
+missing an attack from Pandours in the rear, while such crisis went
+on ahead.
+
+Lying COUSIN Trenck, of the Life-guard, who is now in Glatz, gives
+vivid eye-witness particulars of these things, time of the morning
+and so on; says expressly he was there, and what he did there,
+[Frederic Baron de Trenck, <italic> Memoires, traduits par lui-meme
+<end italic> (Strasbnrg and Paris, 1789), i. 74-78, 79.]--though in
+Glatz under lock and key, three good months before. "How could I
+help mistakes," said he afterwards, when people objected to this
+and that in his blusterous mendacity of a Book: "I had nothing but
+my poor agitated memory to trust to!" A man's memory, when it gets
+the length of remembering that he was in the Battle of Sohr while
+bodily absent, ought it not to--in fact, to strike work; to still
+its agitations altogether, and call halt? Trenck, some months
+after, got clambered out of Glatz, by sewers, or I forget how;
+and leaped, or dropped, from some parapet into the River Neisse,--
+sinking to the loins in tough mud, so that he could not stir
+
+MAP TO GO HERE----BOOK 15-- page 499----
+
+farther. "Fouquet let me stand there half a day, before he would
+pick me out again." Rigorous Bouquet, human mercy forbidding, could
+not let him stand there in permanence,--as we, better
+circumstanced, may with advantage try to do, in time coming!
+
+Friedrich lay at Sohr five days; partly for the honor of the thing,
+partly to eat out the Country to perfection. Prince Karl, from
+Konigshof, soon fell back to Konigsgratz; and lay motionless there,
+nothing but his Tolpatcheries astir, Sohr Country all eaten,
+Friedrich, in the due Divisions, marched northward.
+Through Trautenau, Schatzlar, his own Division, which was the main
+one;--and, fencing off the Tolpatches successfully with trouble,
+brings all his men into Silesia again. A good job of work behind
+them, surely! Cantons them to right and left of Landshut, about
+Rohnstock and Hohenfriedberg, hamlets known so well; and leaving
+the Young Dessauer to command, drives for Berlin (30th October),--
+rapidly, as his wont is. Prince Karl has split up his force at
+Konigsgratz; means, one cannot doubt, to go into winter-quarters.
+If he think of invading, across that eaten Country and those bad
+Mountains,--well, our troops can all be got together in six
+hours' time.
+
+At Trautenau, a week after Sohr, Friedrich had at last received the
+English ratification of that Convention of Hanover, signed 26th
+August, almost a month ago; not ratified till September 22d.
+About which there had latterly been some anxiety, lest his
+Britannic Majesty himself might have broken off from it.
+With Austria, with Saxony, Britannic Majesty has been entirely
+unsuccessful:--"May not Sohr, perhaps, be a fresh persuasive?"
+hopes Friedrich;--but as to Britannic Majesty's breaking off, his
+thoughts are far from that, if we knew! Poor Majesty: not long
+since, Supreme Jove of Germany; and now--is like to be swallowed in
+ragamuffin street-riots; not a thunder-bolt within clutch of him
+(thunder-bolts all sticking in the mud of the Netherlands, far
+off), and not a constable's staff of the least efficacy!
+Consider these dates in combination. Battle of Sohr was on
+THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th:--
+
+"SUNDAY preceding, SEPTEMBER 26th, was such a Lord's-Day in the
+City of Edinburgh, as had not been seen there,--not since Jenny
+Geddes's stool went flying at the Bishop's head, above a hundred
+years before. Big alarm-bell bursting out in the middle of divine
+service; emptying all the Churches ('Highland rebels just at
+hand!')--into General Meeting of the Inhabitants, into Chaos come
+again, for the next forty hours. Till, in the gaunt midnight,
+Tuesday, 2 A.M., Lochiel with about 1,000 Camerons, waiting slight
+opportunity, crushed in through the Netherbow Port; and"--And,
+about noon of that day, a poor friend of ours, loitering expectant
+in the road that leads by St. Anthony's Well, saw making entry into
+paternal Holyrood,--the Young Pretender, in person, who is just
+being proclaimed Prince of Wales, up in the High-street yonder!
+"A tall slender young man, about five feet ten inches high; of a
+ruddy complexion, high-nosed, large rolling brown eyes; long-
+visaged, red-haired, but at that time wore a pale periwig. He was
+in a Highland habit [coat]; over the shoulder a blue sash wrought
+with gold; red velvet breeches; a green velvet bonnet, with white
+cockade on it and a gold lace. His speech seemed very like that of
+an Irishman; very sly [how did you know, my poor friend?];--spoke
+often to O'Sullivan [thought to be a person of some counsel; had
+been Tutor to Maillebois's Boys, had even tried some irregular
+fighting under Maillebois]--to O'Sullivan and" [Henderson, <italic>
+Highland Rebellion, <end italic> p. 14.] ... And on Saturday, in
+short, came PRESTONPANS. Enough of such a Supreme Jove; good for us
+here as a timetable chiefly, or marker of dates!
+
+Sunday, 3d October, King's Adjutant, Captain Mollendorf, a young
+Officer deservedly in favor, arrives at Berlin with the joyful
+tidings of this Sohr business ("Prausnitz" we then called it):
+to the joy of all Prussians, especially of a Queen Mother, for whom
+there is a Letter in pencil. After brief congratulation, Mollendorf
+rushes on; having next to give the Old Dessauer notice of it in his
+Camp at Dieskau, in the Halle neighborhood. Mollendorf appears in
+Halle suddenly next morning, Monday, about ten o'clock, sixteen
+postilions trumpeting, and at their swiftest trot, in front of
+him;--shooting, like a melodious morning-star, across the rusty old
+city, in this manner,--to Dieskau Camp, where he gives the Old
+Dessauer his good news. Excellent Victory indeed; sharp striking,
+swift self-help on our part. Halle and the Camp have enough to
+think of, for this day and the next. Whither Mollendorf went next,
+we will not ask: perhaps to Brunswick and other consanguineous
+places?--Certain it is,
+
+"On Wednesday, the 6th, about two in the afternoon, the Old
+Dessauer has his whole Army drawn out there, with green sprigs in
+their hats, at Dieskau, close upon the Saxon Frontier; and, after
+swashing and manoeuvring about in the highest military style of
+art, ranks them all in line, or two suitable lines, 30,000 of them;
+and then, with clangorous outburst of trumpet, kettle-drum and all
+manner of field-music, fires off his united artillery a first time;
+almost shaking the very hills by such a thunderous peal, in the
+still afternoon. And mark, close fitted into the artillery peal,
+commences a rolling fire, like a peal spread out in threads,
+sparkling strangely to eye and ear; from right to left, long spears
+of fire and sharp strokes of sound, darting aloft, successive
+simultaneous, winding for the space of miles, then back by the rear
+line, and home to the starting-point: very grand indeed. Again, and
+also again, the artillery peal, and rolling small-arms fitted into
+it, is repeated; a second and a third time, kettle-drums and
+trumpets doing what they can. That was the Old Dessauer's bonfiring
+(what is called FEU-DE-JOIE), for the Victory of Sohr; audible
+almost at Leipzig, if the wind were westerly. Overpowering to the
+human mind; at least, to the old Newspaper reporter of that day.
+But what was strangest in the business," continues he "(DAS
+CURIEUSESTE DABEY), was that the Saxon Uhlans, lying about in the
+villages across the Border, were out in the fields, watching the
+sight, hardly 300 yards off, from beginning to end; and little
+dreamed that his High Princely Serenity," blue of face and dreadful
+in war, "was quite close to them, on the Height called Bornhock;
+condescending to 'take all this into High-Serene Eye-shine there;
+and, by having a white flag waved, deigning to give signal for the
+discharges of the artillery.'" [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> i. 1124.]
+
+By this the reader may know that the Old Dessauer is alive, ready
+for action if called on; and Bruhl ought to comprehend better how
+riskish his game with edge-tools is. Bruhl is not now in an
+unprepared state:--here are Uhlans at one's elbow looking on.
+Rutowski's Uhlans; who lies encamped, not far off, in good force,
+posted among morasses; strongly entrenched, and with schemes in his
+head, and in Bruhl's, of an aggressive, thrice-secret and very
+surprising nature! I remark only that, in Heidelberg Country,
+victorious old Traun is putting his people into winter-quarters;
+himself about to vanish from this History, [Went to SIEBENBURGEN
+(Transylvania) as Governor; died there February, 1748, age
+seventy-one (<italic> Maria Theresiens Leben, <end italic> p. 56
+n.).]--and has detached General Grune with 10,000 men; who left
+Heidelberg October 9th, on a mysterious errand, heeded by nobody;
+and will turn up in the next Chapter.
+
+
+
+                         Chapter XIII.
+
+       SAXONY AND AUSTRIA MAKE A SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT.
+
+After this strenuous and victorious Campaign, which has astonished
+all public men, especially all Pragmatic Gazetteers, and with which
+all Europe is disharmoniously ringing, Friedrich is hopeful there
+will be Peace, through England;--cannot doubt, at least, but the
+Austrians have had enough for one year;--and looks forward to
+certain months, if not of rest, yet of another kind of activity.
+Negotiation, Peace through England, if possible; that is the high
+prize: and in the other case, or in any case, readiness for next
+Campaign;--which with the treasury exhausted, and no honorable
+subsidy from France, is a difficult problem.
+
+That was Friedrich's, and everybody's, program of affairs for the
+months coming: but in that Friedrich and everybody found themselves
+greatly mistaken. Bruhl and the Austrians had decided otherwise.
+"Open mouse-trap," at Striegau; claws of the sleeping cat, at Sohr:
+these were sad experiences; ill to bear, with the Sea-Powers
+grumbling on you, and the world sniffing its pity on you;--but are
+not conclusive, are only provoking and even maddening, to the
+sanguine mind. Two sad failures; but let us try another time.
+"A tricky man; cunning enough, your King of Prussia!" thinks Bruhl,
+with a fellness of humor against Friedrich which is little
+conceivable to us now: "Cunning enough. But it is possible cunning
+may be surpassed by deeper cunning!"--and decides, Bartenstein and
+an indignant Empress-Queen assenting eagerly, That there shall, in
+the profoundest secrecy till it break out, be a third, and much
+fiercer trial, this Winter yet. The Bruhl-Bartenstein plan (owing
+mainly to the Russian Bugbear which hung over it, protective, but
+with whims of its own) underwent changes, successive redactions or
+editions; which the reader would grudge to hear explained to him.
+[Account of them in Orlich, ii. 273-278 (from various RUTOWSKI
+Papers; and from the contemporary satirical Pamphlet,
+"MONDSCHEINWURFE, Mirror-castings of Moonshine, by ZEBEDAUS Cuckoo,
+beaten Captain of a beaten Army."] Of the final or acted edition,
+some loose notion, sufficient for our purpose, may be collected
+from the following fractions of Notes:--
+
+NOVEMBER 17th (INTERIOR OF GERMANY). ... "Feldmarschall-Lieutenant
+von Grune, a General of mark, detached by Traun not long since,
+from the Rhine Country, with a force of 10,000 men, why is he
+marching about: first to Baireuth Country, 'at Hof, November 9th,'
+as if for Bohemia; then north, to Gera ('lies at Gera till the
+17th'), as if for Saxony Proper? Prince Karl, you would certainly
+say, has gone into winter-quarters; about Konigsgratz, and farther
+on? Gone or going, sure enough, is Prince Karl, into the convenient
+Bohemian districts,--uncertain which particular districts; at least
+the Young Dessauer, watching him from the Silesian side, is
+uncertain which. Better be vigilant, Prince Leopold!--Grune, lying
+at Gera yonder, is not intending for Prince Karl, then? No, not
+thither. Then perhaps towards Saxony, to reinforce the Saxons?
+Or some-whither to find fat winter-quarters: who knows? Indeed, who
+cares particularly, for such inconsiderable Grune and his 10,000!--
+
+"The Saxons quitted their inexpugnable Camp towards Halle, some
+time ago; went into cantonments farther inland;--the Old Dessauer
+(middle of October) having done the like, and gone home: his force
+lies rather scattered, for convenience of food and forage. From the
+Silesian side, again, Prince Leopold, whose head-quarters are about
+Striegau, intimates, That he cannot yet say, with certainty, what
+districts Prince Karl will occupy for winter-quarters in Bohemia.
+Prince Karl is vaguely roving about; detaching Pandours to the
+Silesian Mountains, as if for checking our victorious Nassau
+there;--always rather creeping northward; skirting Western Silesia
+with his main force; 30,000 or better, with Lobkowitz and Nadasti
+ahead. Meaning what? Be vigilant, my young friend.
+
+"The private fact is, Prince Karl does not mean to go into winter-
+quarters at all. In private fact, Prince Karl is one of Three
+mysterious Elements or Currents, sent on a far errand: Grune is
+another: Rutowski's Saxon Camp (now become Cantonment) is a third.
+Three Currents instinct with fire and destruction, but as yet quite
+opaque; which have been launched,--whitherward thinks the reader?
+On Berlin itself, and the Mark of Brandenburg; there to collide,
+and ignite in a marvellous manner. There is their meeting-point:
+there shall they, on a sudden, smite one another into flame;
+and the destruction blaze, fiery enough, round Friedrich and his
+own Brandenburg homesteads there!--
+
+"It is a grand scheme; scheme at least on a grand scale. For the
+LEGS of it, Grune's march and Prince Karl's, are about 600 miles
+long! Plan due chiefly, they say, to the yellow rage of Bruhl;
+aided by the contrivance of Rutowski, and the counsel of Austrian
+military men. For there is much consulting about it, and redacting
+of it; Polish Majesty himself very busy. To Bruhl's yellow rage it
+is highly solacing and hopeful. 'Rutowski, lying close in his
+Cantonments, and then suddenly springing out, will overwhelm the
+Old Dessauer, who lies wide;--can do it, surely; and Grune is there
+to help if necessary. Dessauer blown to pieces, Grune, with
+Rutowski combined, push in upon Brandenburg,--Grune himself upon
+Berlin,--from the west and south, nobody expecting him. Prince
+Karl, not taking into winter-quarters in Bohemia, as they idly
+think; but falling down the Valley of the Bober, or Bober and
+Queiss, into the Lausitz (to Gorlitz, Guben, where we have
+Magazines for him), comes upon it from the southeast,--nobody
+expecting any of them. Three simultaneous Armies hurled on the head
+of your Friedrich; combustible deluges flowing towards him, as from
+the ends of Germany; so opaque, silent, yet of fire wholly:
+will not that surprise him!' thinks Bruhl. These are the schemes of
+the little man."
+
+Bruhl, having constituted himself rival to Friedrich, and fallen
+into pale or yellow rage by the course things took, this Plan is
+naturally his chief joy, or crown of joys; a bubbling well of
+solace to him in his parched condition. He should, obviously, have
+kept it secret; thrice-secret, the little fool;--but a poor parched
+man is not always master of his private bubbling wells in that
+kind! Wolfstierna is Swedish Envoy at Dresden; Rudenskjold, Swedish
+Envoy at Berlin, has run over to see him in the dim November days.
+Swedes, since Ulrique's marriage, are friendly to Prussia.
+Bruhl has these two men to dinner; talks with them, over his wine,
+about Friedrich's insulting usage of him, among other topics.
+"Insulting; how, your Excellency?" asks Rudenskjold, privately a
+friend of Friedrich. Bruhl explains, with voice quivering, those
+cuts in the Friedrich manifesto of August last, and other griefs
+suffered; the two Swedes soothing him with what oil they have
+ready. "No matter!" hints Bruhl; and proceeds from hint to hint,
+till the two Swedes are fully aware of the grand scheme:
+Grune, Prince Karl; and how Destruction, with legs 500 miles long,
+is steadily advancing to assuage one with just revenge.
+"Right, your Excellency!"--only that Rudenskjold proceeds to
+Berlin; and there straightway ("8th November") punctually makes
+Friedrich also aware. [Stenzel, iv. 262; Ranke, iii. 317-323;
+Friedrich's own narrative of it, <italic> OEuvres, <end italic>
+iii. 148.] Foolish Bruhl: a man that has a secret should not only
+hide it, but hide that he has it to hide.
+
+
+       FRIEDRICH GOES OUT TO MEET HIS THREE-LEGGED MONSTER;
+               CUTS ONE LEG OF IT IN TWO (Fight of
+                Hennersdorf, 23d November, 1745).
+
+Friedrich, having heard the secret, gazes into it with horror and
+astonishment: "What a time I have! This is not living; this is
+being killed a thousand times a day!" [Ranke (iii. 321 n.): TO whom
+said, we are not told.]--with horror and astonishment; but also
+with what most luminous flash of eyesight is in him; compares it
+with Prince Karl's enigmatic motions, Grune's open ones and the
+other phenomena;--perceives that it is an indisputable fact, and a
+thrice-formidable; requiring to be instantly dealt with by the
+party interested! Whereupon, after hearty thanks to Rudenskjold,
+there occur these rapidly successive phases of activity, which we
+study to take up in a curt form.
+
+FIRST (probably 9th or 10th November), there is Council held with
+Minister Podewils and the Old Dessauer; Council from which comes
+little benefit, or none. Podewils and Old Leopold stare
+incredulous; cannot be made to believe such a thing.
+"Impossible any Saxon minister or man would voluntarily bring the
+theatre of war into his own Country, in this manner!" thinks the
+Old Dessauer, and persists to think,--on what obstinate ground
+Friedrich never knew. To which Podewils, "who has properties in the
+Lausitz, and would so fain think them safe," obstinately, though
+more covertly, adheres. "Impossible!" urge both these Councillors;
+and Friedrich cannot even make them believe it. Believe it;
+and, alas, believing it is not the whole problem!
+
+Happily Friedrich has the privilege of ordering, with or without
+their belief. "You, Podewils, announce the matter to foreign
+Courts. You, Serene Highness of Anhalt, at your swiftest, collect
+yonder, and encamp again. Your eye well on Grune and Rutowski;
+and the instant I give you signal--! I am for Silesia, to look
+after Prince Karl, the other long leg of this Business."
+Old Leopold, according to Friedrich's account, is visibly glad of
+such opportunity to fight again before he die: and yet, for no
+reason except some senile jealousy, is not content with these
+arrangements; perversely objects to this and that. At length the
+King says,--think of this hard word, and of the eyes that accompany
+it!--"When your Highness gets Armies of your own, you will order
+them accordiug to your mind; at present, it must be according to
+mine." On, then; and not a moment lost: for of all things we must
+be swift!
+
+Old Leopold goes accordingly. Friedrich himself goes in a week
+hence. Orders, correspondences from Podewils and the rest, are
+flying right and left;--to Young Leopold in Silesia, first of all.
+Young Leopold draws out his forces towards the Silesian-Lausitz
+border, where Prince Karl's intentions are now becoming visible.
+And,--here is the second phase notable,--
+
+"On Monday, 15th, ["18th," <italic> Feldzuge, <end italic> i. 402
+(see Rodenbeck, i. 122).] at 7 A.M.," Friedrich rushes off, by
+Crossen, full speed for Liegnitz; "with Rothenburg, with the Prince
+of Prussia and Ferdinand of Brunswick accompanying." With what
+thoughts,--though, in his face, you can read nothing; all Berlin
+being already in such tremor! Friedrich is in Liegnitz next day;
+and after needful preliminaries there, does, on the Thursday
+following, "at Nieder-Adelsdorf," not far off, take actual command
+of Prince Leopold's Army, which had lain encamped for some days,
+waiting him. And now with such force in hand,--35,000, soldiers
+every man of them, and freshened by a month's rest,--one will
+endeavor to do some good upon Prince Karl. Probably sooner than
+Prince Karl supposes. For there is great velocity in this young
+King; a panther-like suddenness of spring in him: cunning, too, as
+any Felis of them; and with claws like the Felis Leo on occasion.
+Here follows the brief Campaign that ensued, which I strive greatly
+to abridge.
+
+Prince Karl's intentions towards Frankfurt-on-Oder Country, through
+the Lausitz, are now becoming practically manifest. There is a
+Magazine for him at Guben, within thirty miles of Frankfurt;
+arrangements getting ready all the way. A winter march of 150
+miles;--but what, say the spies, is to hinder? Prince Karl dreams
+not that Friedrich is on the ground, or that anybody is aware.
+Which notion Friedrich finds that it will be extremely suitable to
+maintain in Prince Karl. Friedrich is now at Adelsdorf, some thirty
+miles eastward of the Lausitz Border, perhaps forty or more from
+the route Prince Karl will follow through that Province.
+
+"It is a high-lying irregularly hilly Country; hilly, not
+mountainous. Various streams rise out of it that have a long
+course,--among others, the Spree, which washes Berlin;--especially
+three Valleys cross it, three Rivers with their Valleys:
+Bober, Queiss, Neisse (the THIRD Neisse we have come upon);
+all running northward, pretty much parallel, though all are
+branches of the Oder. This is Neisse THIRD, we say; not the Neisse
+of Neisse City, which we used to know at the north base of the
+Giant Mountains, nor the Roaring Neisse, which we have seen at
+Hohenfriedberg; but a third [and the FOURTH and last, "Black
+Neisse," thank Heaven, is an upper branch of this, and we have, and
+shall have, nothing to do with it!]--third Neisse, which we may
+call the Lausitz Neisse. On which, near the head of it, there is a
+fine old spinning, linen-weaving Town called Zittau,--where, to
+make it memorable, one Tourist has read, on the Town-house, an
+Inscription worth repeating: 'BENE FACERE ET MALE AUDIRE REGIUM
+EST, To do good and have evil said of you, is a kingly thing.'
+Other Towns, as Gorlitz, and seventy miles farther the above-said
+Guben, lie on this same Neisse,--shall we add that Herrnhuth stands
+near the head of it? The wondrous Town of Herrnhuth (LORD'S-
+KEEPING), founded by Count Zinzendorf, twenty years before those
+dates; ["In 1722, the first tree felled" (LIVES of Zinzendorf).] 
+where are a kind of German Methodist-Quakers to this day, who have
+become very celebrated in the interim. An opulent enough, most
+silent, strictly regular, strange little Town. The women are in
+uniform; wives, maids, widows, each their form of dress.
+Missionaries, speaking flabby English, who have been in the West
+Indies or are going thither, seem to abound in the place;
+male population otherwise, I should think, must be mainly doing
+trade elsewhere; nothing but prayers, preachings, charitable
+boarding-schooling and the like, appeared to be going on.
+Herrnhuth is 'a Sabbath Petrified; Calvinistic Sabbath done into
+Stone,' as one of my companions called it." [Tourist's Note
+(Autumn, 1852).]
+
+Herrnhuth, of which all Englishmen have heard, stands near the head
+of this our third Neisse; as does Zittau, a few miles higher up.
+I can do nothing more to give it mark for them. Bober Valley, then
+Queiss Valley, which run parallel though they join at last, and
+become Bober wholly before getting into the Oder,--these two
+Valleys and Rivers lie in Friedrich's own Territory; and are
+between him and the Lausitz, Queiss River being the boundary of
+Silesia and the Lausitz here. It is down the Neisse that Prince
+Karl means to march. There are Saxons already gathering about
+Zittau; and down as far as Guben they are making Magazines and
+arrangements,--for it is all their own Country in those years,
+though most of it is Prussia's now. Prince Karl's march will go
+parallel to the Bober and the Queiss; separated from the Queiss in
+this part by an undulating Hill-tract of twenty miles or more.
+
+Friedrich has had somewhat to settle for the Southern Frontier of
+Silesia withal, which new doggeries of Pandours are invading,--to
+lie ready for Prince Karl on his return thither, whose grand
+meaning all this while (as Friedrich well knows), is "Silesia in
+the lump" again, had he once cut us off from Brandenburg and our
+supplies! General Nassau, far eastward, who is doing exploits in
+Moravia itself,--him Friedrich has ordered homeward, westward to
+his own side of the Mountains, to attend these new Pandour
+gentlemen; Winterfeld he has called home, out of those Southern
+mountains, as likely to be usefuler here on this Western frontier.
+Winterfeld arrived in Camp the same day with Friedrich; and is sent
+forward with a body of 3,000 light troops, to keep watch about the
+Lausitz Frontier and the River Queiss; "careful not to quit our own
+side of that stream,"--as we mean to hoodwink Prince Karl, if
+we can!
+
+Friedrich lies strictly within his own borders, for a day or two;
+till Prince Karl march, till his own arrangements are complete.
+Friedrich himself keeps the Bober, Winterfeld the Queiss; "all pass
+freely out of the Lausitz; none are allowed to cross into it:
+thereby we hear notice of Prince Karl, he none of us."
+Perfectly quiescent, we, poor creatures, and aware of nothing!
+Thus, too, Friedrich--in spite of his warlike Manifesto, which the
+Saxons are on the eve of answering with a formal Declaration of
+War--affects great rigor in considering the Saxons as not yet at
+war with him: respects their frontier, Winterfeld even punishes
+hussars "for trespassing on Lausitz ground." Friedrich also affects
+to have roads repaired, which he by no means intends to travel:--
+the whole with a view of lulling Prince Karl; of keeping the mouse-
+trap open, as he had done in the Striegau case. It succeeded again,
+quite as conspicuously, and at less expense.
+
+Prince Karl--whose Tolpatch doggery Winterfeld will not allow to
+pass the Queiss, and to whom no traveller or tidings can come from
+beyond that River--discerns only, on the farther shore of it,
+Winterfeld with his 3,000 light troops. Behind these, he discerns
+either nothing, or nothing immediately momentous; but contentedly
+supposes that this, the superficies of things, is all the solid-
+content they have. Prince Karl gets under way, therefore, nothing
+doubting; with his Saxons as vanguard. Down the Neisse Valley, on
+the right or Queiss-ward side of it: Saturday, 20th November, is
+his first march in Lusatian territory. He lies that night spread
+out in three Villages, Schonberg, Schonbrunn, Kieslingswalde;
+[<italic> Feldzuge, <end italic> i. 407 (Bericht von der Action bey
+Katholisch-Hennersdorf, &c.).] some ten miles long; parallel to the
+Neisse River, and about four miles from it, east or Queiss-ward of
+it. Karl himself is rear, at Schonberg; fierce Lobkowitz is centre;
+the Saxons are vanguard, 6,000 in all, posted in Villages, which
+again are some ten or twelve miles ahead of Prince Karl's forces;
+the Queiss on their right hand, and the Naumburg Bridge of Queiss,
+where Winterfeld now is, about fifteen miles to east. Their Uhlans
+circulate through the intervening space (were much patrolling
+needed, in such quiet circumstances), and maintain the due
+communication. There lies Prince Karl, on Saturday night, 20th
+November, 1745; an Army of perhaps 40,000, dnngerously straggling
+out above twenty miles long; and appears to see no difficulty
+ahead. The Saxons, I think, are to continue where they are;
+guarding the flank, while the Prince and Lobkowitz push forward,
+closer by Neisse River. In four marches more, they can be in
+Brandenburg, with Guben and their Magazines at hand.
+
+Seeing which state of matters, Winterfeld gives Friedrich notice of
+it; and that he, Winterfeld, thinks the moment is come.
+"Pontoons to Naumburg, then!" orders Friedrich. Winterfeld, at the
+proper moment, is to form a Bridge there. One permanent Bridge
+there already is; and two fords, one above it, one below: with a
+second Bridge, there will be roadway for four columns, and a swift
+transit when needful. Sunday, 21st, Friedrich quits the Bober,
+diligently towards Naumburg; marches Sunday, Monday; Tuesday, 23d,
+about eleven A.M., begins to arrive there; Winterfeld and passages
+all ready. Forward, then, and let us drive in upon Prince Karl;
+and either cut him in two, or force him to fight us; he little
+thinks where or on what terms. Sure enough, in the worst place we
+can choose for him! Friedrich begins crossing in four columns at
+one P.M.; crosses continuously for four hours; unopposed, except
+some skirmishing of Uhlans, while his Cavalry is riding the Fords
+to right and left; Uhlans were driven back swiftly, so soon as the
+Cavalry got over. At five in the evening, he has got entirely
+across, 35,000 horse and foot: Ziethen is chasing the Uhlans at
+full speed; who at least will show us the way,--for by this time a
+mist has begun falling, and the brief daylight is done.
+
+Friedrich himself, without waiting for the rear of his force, and
+some while before this mist fell (as I judge), is pushing forward,
+"a miller lad for his guide," across to Hennersdorf,--Katholisch-
+Hennersdorf, a long straggling Village, eight or ten miles off, and
+itself two miles long,--where he understands the Saxons are.
+Miller lad guides us, over height and hollow, with his best skill,
+at a brisk pace;--through one hollow, where he has known the cattle
+pasture in summer time; but which proves impassable, and mere
+quagmire, at this season. No getting through it, you unfortunate
+miller lad (GARCON DE MEUNIER). Nevertheless, we did find passage
+through the skirts of it: nay this quagmire proved the luck of us;
+for the enemy, trustiug to it, had no outguard there, never
+expecting us on that side. So that the vanguard, Ziethen and rapid
+Hussars, made an excellent thing of it. Ziethen sends us word, That
+he has got into the body of Hennersdorf,--"found the Saxon
+Quartermaster quietly paying his men;"--that he, Ziethen, is
+tolerably master of Hennersdorf, and will amuse the enemy till the
+other force come up.
+
+Of course Friedrich now pushes on, double speed; detaches other
+force, horse and foot: which was lucky, says my informant; for the
+Ziethen Hussars, getting good plunder, had by no means demolished
+the Saxons; but had left them time to draw up in firm order, with a
+hedge in front, a little west of the Village;--from which post,
+unassailable by Ziethen, they would have got safe off to the main
+body, with little but an affront and some loss of goods. The new
+force--a rapid Katzler with light horse in the van, cuirassiers and
+foot rapidly following him--sweeps past the long Village, "through
+a thin wood and a defile;" finds the enemy firmly ranked as above
+said; cavalry their left, infantry on right, flanked by an
+impenetrable hedge; and at once strikes in. At once, Katzler does,
+on order given; but is far too weak. Charges, he; but is counter-
+charged, tumbled back; the Saxons, horse and foot, showing
+excellent fight. At length, more Prussian force coming up,
+cuirassiers charge them in front, dragoons in flank, hussars in
+rear; all attacking at once, and with a will; and the poor Saxon
+Cavalry is entirely cut to shreds.
+
+And now there remains only the Infantry, perhaps about 1,000 men
+(if one must guess); who form a square; ply vigorously their field-
+pieces and their fire-arms; and cannot be broken by horse-charges.
+In fact, these Saxons made a fierce resistance;--till, before long,
+Prussian Infantry came up; and, with counter field-pieces and
+musketries, blasted gaps in them; upon which the Cavalry got
+admittance, and reduced the gallant fellows nearly wholly to
+annihilation either by death or capture. There are 914 Prisoners in
+this Action, 4 big guns, and I know not how many kettle-drums,
+standards and the like,--all that were there, I suppose. The number
+of dead not given. [Orlich, ii. 291; <italic> Feldzuge, <end
+italic> i. 400-413.] But, in brief, this Saxon Force is utterly cut
+to pieces; and only scattered twos and threes of it rush through
+the dark mist; scattering terror to this hand and that.
+The Prussians take their post at and round Hennersdorf that night;
+--bivouacking, though only in sack trousers, a blanket each man:--
+"We work hard, my men, and suffer all things for a day or two, that
+it may save much work afterwards," said the King to them; and they
+cheerfully bivouacked.
+
+This was the Action of Katholisch-Hennersdorf, fought on Tuesday,
+23d November, 1745; and still celebrated in the Prussian Annals,
+and reckoned a brilliant passage of war. KATHOLISCH-Hennersdorf,
+some ten miles southwest of Naumburg ON THE QUEISS (for there are,
+to my knowledge, Twenty-five other Villages called Hennersdorf, and
+Three several Towns of Naumburg, and many Castles and Hamlets so
+named in dear Germany of the Nomenclatures):--Katholisch-
+Hennersdorf is the place, and Tuesday about dusk the time. A sharp
+brush of fighting; not great in quantity, but laid in at the right
+moment, in the right place. Like the prick of a needle, duly sharp,
+into the spinal marrow of a gigantic object; totally ruinous to
+such object. Never, or rarely, in the Annals of War, was as much
+good got of so little fighting. You may, with labor and peril,
+plunge a hundred dirks into your boaconstrictor; hack him with
+axes, bray him with sledge-hammers; that is not uncommon: but the
+one true prick in the spinal marrow, and the Artist that can
+guide you well to that, he and it are the notable and
+beneficent phenomena.
+
+
+    PRINCE KARL, CUT IN TWO, TUMBLES HOME AGAIN DOUBLE-QUICK.
+
+Next morning, Wednesday, 24th, the Prussians are early astir again;
+groping, on all manner of roads, to find what Prince Karl is doing,
+in a world all covered in thick mist. They can find nothing of him,
+but broken tumbrils, left baggage-wagons, rumor of universal
+marching hither and marching thither;--evidences of an Army fallen
+into universal St. Vitus's-Dance; distractedly hurrying to and fro,
+not knowing whitherward for the moment, except that it must be
+homewards, homewards with velocity.
+
+Prince Karl's farther movements are not worth particularizing.
+Ordering and cross-ordering; march this way; no, back again: such a
+scene in that mist. Prince Karl is flowing homeward; confusedly
+deluging and gurgling southward, the best he can. Next afternoon,
+near Gorlitz, and again one other time, he appears drawn up, as if
+for fighting; but has himself no such thought; flies again, without
+a shot; leaves Gorlitz to capitulate, that afternoon; all places to
+capitulate, or be evacuated. We hear he is for Zittau;
+Winterfeld with light horse hastens after him, gets sight of him on
+the Heights at Zittau yonder, [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end
+italic> iii. 157; Orlich, ii. 296.] "about two in the morning:"
+but the Prince has not the least notion to fight. Prince leaves
+Zittau to capitulate,--quits silently the Heights of Zittau at two
+A.M. (Winterfeld, very lively in the rear of him, cutting off his
+baggage);--and so tumbles, pell-mell, through the Passes of Gabel,
+home to Bohemia again. Let us save this poor Note from the fire:
+
+"On Saturday night, November 27th, the Prussians, pursuing Prince
+Karl, were cantoned in the Herrnhuth neighborhood,--my informant's
+regiment in the Town of Herrnhuth itself. [<italic> Feldzuge, <end
+italic> i. ubi supra.] Yes, there lay the Prussians over Sunday;
+and might hear some weighty expounder, if they liked.
+Considerably theological, many of these poor Prussian soldiers;
+carrying a Bible in their knapsack, and devout Psalms in the heart
+of them. Two-thirds of every regiment are LANDESKINDER, native
+Prussians; each regiment from a special canton,--generally rather
+religious men. The other third are recruits, gathered in the Free
+Towns of the Reich, or where they can be got; not distinguished by
+devotion these, we may fancy, only trained to the uttermost by
+Spartan drill."
+
+Before the week is done, that "first leg" of the grand Enterprise
+(the Prince-Karl leg) is such a leg as we see. "Silesia in the
+lump,"--fond dream again, what a dream! Old Dessauer getting
+signal, where now, too probably, is Saxony itself?--Ranking again
+at Aussig in Bohemia, Prince Karl--5,000 of his men lost, and all
+impetus and fire gone--falls gently down the Elbe, to join Rutowski
+at least; and will reappear within four weeks, out of Saxon
+Switzerland, still rather in dismal humor.
+
+The Prussian Troops, in four great Divisions, are cantoned in that
+Lausitz Country, now so quiet; in and about Bautzen and three other
+Towns of the neighborhood; to rest and be ready for the old
+Dessauer, when we hear of him. The "Magazine at Guben in 138
+wagons," the Gorlitz and other Magazines of Prince Karl in the due
+number of wagons, supply them with comfortabIe unexpected
+provender. Thus they lie cantoned; and have with despatch
+effectually settled their part of the problem. Question now is, How
+will it stand with the Old Dessauer and his part? Or, better still,
+Would not perhaps the Saxons, in this humiliated state, accept
+Peace, and finish the matter?
+
+
+
+                         Chapter XIV.
+
+                    BATTLE OF KESSELSDORF.
+
+A "Correspondence" of a certain Excellency Villiers, English
+Minister at Dresden,--Sir Thomas Villiers, Grandfather of the
+present Earl of Clarendon,--was very famous in those weeks; and is
+still worth mention, as a trait of Friedrich's procedure in this
+crisis. Friedrich, not intoxicated with his swift triumph over
+Prince Karl, but calculating the perils and the chances still
+ahead,--miserably off for money too,--admits to himself that not
+revenge or triumph, that Peace is the one thing needful to him.
+November 29th, Old Leopold is entering Saxony; and in the same
+hours, Podewils at Berlin, by order of Friedrich, writes to
+Villiers who is in Dresden, about Peace, about mediating for Peace:
+"My King ready and desirous, now as at all times, for Peace; the
+terms of it known; terms not altered, not alterable, no bargaining
+or higgling needed or allowable. CONVENTION OF HANOVER, let his
+Polish Majesty accede honestly to that, and all these miseries are
+ended." ["CORRESPONDANCE DU ROI AVEC SIR THOMAS VILLIERS;"
+commences, on Podewils's part, 28th November; on Friedrich's, 4th
+December; ends, on Villier's, 18th December; fourteen Pieces in
+all, four of them Friedrich's: Given in <italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> iii. 183-216 (see IB, 158), and in many
+other Books.]
+
+Villiers starts instantly on this beneficent business; "goes to
+Court, on it, that very night;" Villiers shows himself really
+diligent, reasonable, loyal; doing his very best now and
+afterwards; but has no success at all. Polish Majesty is obstinate,
+--I always think, in the way sheep are, when they feel themselves
+too much put upon;--and is deaf to everybody but Bruhl.
+Bruhl answers: "Let his Prussian Majesty retire from our
+Territory;--what is he doing in the Lausitz just now! Retire from
+our Territory; THEN we will treat!" Bruhl still refuses to be
+desperate of his bad game;--at any rate, Bruhl's rage is yellower
+than ever. That, very evening, while talking to Villiers, he has
+had preparations going on;--and next morning takes his Master,
+Polish Majesty August III., with some comfortable minimum of
+apparatus (cigar-boxes not forgotten), off to Prag, where they can
+be out of danger till the thing decide itself. Villiers follows to
+Prag; desists not from his eloquent Letters, and earnest
+persuasions at Prag; but begins to perceive that the means of
+persuading Bruhl will be a much heavier kind of artillery.
+
+On the whole, negotiations have yet done little. Britannic George,
+though Purseholder, what is his success here? As little is the
+Russian Bugbear persuasive on Friedrich himself. The Czarina of the
+Russias, a luxurious lady, of far more weight than insight, has
+just notified to him, with more emphasis than ever, That he shall
+not attack Saxony; that if he do, she with considerable vigor will
+attack him! That has always been a formidable puzzle for Friedrich:
+however, he reflects that the Russians never could draw sword, or
+be ready with their Army, in less than six months, probably not in
+twelve; and has answered, translating it into polite official
+terms: "Fee-faw-fum, your Czarish Majesty! Question is not now of
+attacking, but of being myself attacked!"--and so is now running
+his risks with the Czarina.
+
+Still worse was the result he got from Louis XV. Lately, "for
+form's sake," as he tells us, "and not expecting anything," he had
+(November 15th) made a new appeal to France: "Ruin menacing your
+Most Christian Majesty's Ally, in this huge sudden crisis of
+invasive Austrian-Saxons; and for your Majesty's sake, may I not in
+some measure say?" To which Louis's Answer is also given. A very
+sickly, unpleasant Document; testifying to considerable pique
+against Friedrich;--Ranke says, it was a joint production, all the
+Ministers gradually contributing each his little pinch of irony to
+make it spicier, and Louis signing when it was enough;--very
+considerable pique against Friedrich; and something of the stupid
+sulkiness as of a fat bad boy, almost glad that the house is on
+fire, because it will burn his nimble younger brother, whom
+everybody calls so clever: "Sorry indeed, Sir my Brother, most
+sorry:--and so you have actually signed that HANOVER CONVENTION
+with our worst Enemy? France is far from having done so; France has
+done, and will do, great things. Our Royal heart grieves much at
+your situation; but is not alarmed; no, Your Majesty has such
+invention, vigor and ability, superior to any crisis, our clever
+younger Brother! And herewith we pray God to have you in his holy
+keeping." This is the purport of King Louis's Letter;--which
+Friedrich folds together again, looking up from perusal of it, we
+may fancy with what a glance of those eyes. [Louis's Original, in
+<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> iii. 173, 174 (with a
+much more satirical paraphrase than the above), and Friedrich's
+Answer adjoined,--after the events had come.]
+
+He is getting instructed, this young King, as to alliances, grand
+combinations, French and other. His third Note to Villiers
+intimates, "It being evident that his Polish Majesty will have
+nothing from us but fighting, we must try to give it him of the
+best kind we have." ["Bautzen, 11th December, 1745" (UBI SUPRA).]
+Yes truly; it is the ULTIMATE persuasive, that. Here, in condensed
+form, are the essential details of the course it went, in this
+instance:--
+  
+General Grune, on the road to Berlin, hearing of the rout at
+Hennersdorf, halted instantly,--hastened back to Saxony, to join
+Rutowski there, and stand on the defensive. Not now in that Halle-
+Frontier region (Rutowski has quitted that, and all the
+intrenchments and marshy impregnabilities there); not on that
+Halle-Frontier, but hovering about in the interior, Rutowski and
+Grune are in junction; gravitating towards Dresden;--expecting
+Prince Karl's advent; who ought to emerge from the Saxon
+Switzerland in few days, were he sharp; and again enable us to make
+a formidable figure. Be speedy, Old Dessauer: you must settle the
+Grune-Rutowski account before that junction, not after it!
+
+The Old Dessauer has been tolerably successful, and by no means
+thinks he has been losing time. November 29th, "at three in the
+morning," he stept over into Saxony with its impregnable camps;
+drove Rutowski's rear-guard, or remnant, out of the quagmires,
+canals and intrenchments, before daylight; drove it, that same
+evening, or before dawn of the morrow, out of Leipzig: has seized
+that Town,--lays heavy contribution on it, nearly 50,000 pounds
+(such our strait for finance), "and be sure you take only
+substantial men as sureties!" [Orlich, ii. 308.]--and will, and
+does after a two days' rest, advance with decent celerity inwards;
+though "One must first know exactly whither; one must have bread,
+and preparations and precautions; do all things solidly and in
+order," thinks the Old Dessauer. Friedrich well knows the whither;
+and that Dresden itself is, or may be made, the place for falling
+in with Rutowski. Friedrich is now himself ready to join, from the
+Bautzen region; the days and hours precious to him; and spurs the
+Old Dessauer with the sharpest remonstrances. "All solidly and in
+order, your Majesty!" answers the Old Dessauer: solid strong-boned
+old coach-horse, who has his own modes of trotting, having done
+many a heavy mile of it in his time; and whose skin, one hopes, is
+of the due thickness against undue spurring.
+
+Old Dessauer wishes two things: bread to live upon; and a sure
+Bridge over the Elbe whereby Friedrich may join him. Old Dessauer
+makes for Torgau, far north, where is both an Elbe Bridge and a
+Magazine; which he takes; Torgau and pertinents now his. But it is
+far down the Elbe, far off from Bautzen and Friedrich: "A nearer
+Bridge and rendezvous, your Highness! Meissen [where they make the
+china, only fifty miles from me, and twenty from Dresden], let that
+be the Bridge, now that you have got victual. And speedy;
+for Heaven's sake, speedy!" Friedrich pushes out General Lehwald
+from Bautzen, with 4,000 men, towards Meissen Bridge; Lehwald does
+not himself meddle with the Bridge, only fires shot across upon the
+Saxon party, till the Old Dessauer, on the other bank, come up;--
+and the Old Dessauer, impatience thinks, will never come. "Three
+days in Torgau, yes, Your Majesty: I had bread to bake, and the
+very ovens had to be built." A solid old roadster, with his own
+modes of trotting; needs thickness of skin. [Friedrich's Letters to
+Leopold, in Orlich, ii. 431, 435 (6th-10th December, 1745).]
+
+At long last, on Sunday, 12th December, about two P.M., the Old
+Dessauer does appear; or General Gessler, his vanguard, does
+appear,--Gessler of the sixty-seven standards,--"always about an
+hour ahead." Gessler has summoned Meissen; has not got it, is
+haggling with it about terms, when, towards sunset of the short
+day, Old Dessauer himself arrives. Whereupon the Saxon Commandant
+quits the Bridge (not much breaking it); and glides off in the
+dark, clear out of Meissen, towards Dresden,--chased, but
+successfully defending himself. [See Plan, p. 10.] "Had he but
+stood out for two days!" say the Saxons,--"Prince Karl had then
+been up, and much might have been different." Well, Friedrich too
+would have been up, and it had most likely been the same on a
+larger scale. But the Saxon Commandant did not stand out; he glided
+off, safe; joined Rutowski and Grune, who are lying about Wilsdruf,
+six or seven miles on the hither side of Dresden, and eagerly
+waiting for Prince Karl. "Bridge and Town of Meissen are your
+Majesty's," reports the Old Dessauer that night: upon which
+Friedrich instantly rises, hastening thitherward. Lehwald comes
+across Meissen Bridge, effects the desired junction; and all Monday
+the Old Dessauer defiles through Meissen town and territory;
+continually advances towards Dresden, the Saxons harassing the
+flanks of him a little,--nay in one defile, being sharp strenuous
+fellows, they threw his rear into some confusion; cut off certain
+carts and prisoners, and the life of one brave General, Lieutenant-
+General Roel, who had charge there. "Spurring one's trot into a
+gallop! This comes of your fast marching, of your spurring beyond
+the rules of war!" thinks Old Leopold; and Friedrich, who knows
+otherwise, is very angry for a moment.
+
+But indeed the crisis is pressing. Prince Karl is across the Metal
+Mountains, nearing Dresden from the east; Friedrich strikes into
+march for the same point by Meissen, so soon as the Bridge is his.
+Old Leopold is advancing thither from the westward,--steadily hour
+by hour; Dresden City the fateful goal. There,--in these middle
+days of December, 1745 (Highland Rebellion just whirling back from
+Derby again, "the London shops shut for one day"),--it is clear
+there will be a big and bloody game played before we are much
+older. Very sad indeed: but Count Bruhl is not persuadable
+otherwise. By slumbering and sluggarding, over their money-tills
+and flesh-pots; trying to take evil for good, and to say, "It will
+do," when it will not do, respectable Nations come at last to be
+governed by Bruhls; cannot help themselves;--and get their backs
+broken in consequence. Why not? Would you have a Nation live
+forever that is content to be governed by Bruhls? The gods are
+wiser!--It is now the 13th; Old Dessauer tramping forward, hour by
+hour, towards Dresden and some field of Fate.
+
+On Tuesday, 14th, by break of day, Old Dessauer gets on march
+again; in four columns, in battle order; steady all day,--hard
+winter weather, ground crisp, and flecked with snow. The Pass at
+Neustadt, "his cavalry went into it at full gallop;" but found
+nobody there. That night he encamps at a place called Rohrsdorf;
+which may be eight miles west-by-north from Dresden, as the crow
+flies; and ten or more, if you follow the highway round by Wilsdruf
+on your right. The real direct Highway from Meissen to Dresden is
+on the other side of the Elbe, and keeps by the River-bank, a fine
+level road; but on this western side, where Leopold now is, the
+road is inland, and goes with a bend. Leopold, of course, keeps
+command of this road; his columns are on both sides of it, River on
+their left at some miles distance; and incessantly expect to find
+Rutowski, drawn out on favorable ground somewhere. The country is
+of fertile, but very broken character; intersected by many brooks,
+making obliquely towards the Elbe (obliquely, with a leaning
+Meissen-wards); country always mounting, till here about Rohrsdorf
+we seem to have almost reached the watershed, and the brooks make
+for the Elbe, leaning Dresden way. Good posts abound in such broken
+country, with its villages and brooks, with its thickets, hedges
+and patches of swamp. But Rutowski has not appeared anywhere,
+during this Tuesday.
+
+Our four columns, therefore, lie all night, under arms, about
+Rohrsdorf: and again by morrow's dawn are astir in the old order,
+crunching far and wide the frozen ground; and advance, charged to
+the muzzle with potential battle. Slightly upwards always, to the
+actual watershed of the country; leaving Wilsdruf a little to their
+right. Wilsdruf is hardly past, when see, from this broad table-
+land, top of the country: "Yonder is Rutowski, at last;--and this
+new Wednesday will be a day!" Yonder, sure enough: drawn out three
+or four miles long; with his right to the Elbe, his left to that
+intricate Village of Kesselsdorf; bristling with cannon;
+deep gullet and swampy brook in front of him: the strongest post a
+man could have chosen in those parts.
+
+The Village of Kesselsdorf itself lies rather in a hollow; in the
+slight beginning, or uppermost extremity, of a little Valley or
+Dell, called the Tschonengrund,--which, with its, quaggy brook of a
+Tschone, wends northeastward into the Elbe, a course of four or
+five miles: a little Valley very deep for its length, and getting
+altogether chasmy and precipitous towards the Elbe-ward or lower
+end. Kesselsdorf itself, as we said, is mainly in a kind of hollow:
+between Old Leopold and Kesselsdorf the ground rather mounts;
+and there is perceptibly a flat knoll or rise at the head of it,
+where the Village begins. Some trees there, and abundance of cannon
+and grenadiers at this moment. It is the southwestern or left-most
+point of Rutowski's line; impregnable with its cannon-batteries and
+grenadiers. Rightward Rutowski extends in long lines, with the
+quaggy-dell of Tschonengrund in front of him, parallel to him;
+Dell ever deepening as it goes. Northeastward, at the extreme
+right, or Elbe point of it, where Grune and the Austrians stand, it
+has grown so chasmy, we judge that Grune can neither advance nor be
+
+MAP/PLAN GOES HERE--book 15 continuation	--page 10--
+
+
+advanced upon: so we leave him standing there,--which he did all
+day, in a purely meditative posture. Rutowski numbers 35,000, now
+on this ground, with immensity of cannon; 32,000 we, with only the
+usual field-artillery, and such a Tschonengrund, with its half-
+frozen quagmires ahead. A ticklish case for the old man, as he
+grimly reconnoitres it, in the winter morning.
+
+Grim Old Dessauer having reconnoitred, and rapidly considered,
+decides to try it,--what else?--will range himself on the west side
+of that Tschonengrund, horse and foot; two lines, wide as Rutowski
+opposite him; but means to direct his main and prime effort against
+Kesselsdorf, which is clearly the key of the position, if it can.
+be taken. For which end the Old Dessauer lengthens himself out to
+rightward, so as to outflank Kesselsdorf;--neglecting Grune
+(refusing Grune, as the soldiers say):--"our horse of the right
+wing reached from the Wood called Lerchenbusoh (LARCH-BUSH)
+rightward as far as Freyberg road; foot all between that
+Lerchenbusch and the big Birch-tree on the road to Wilsdruf;
+horse of the left wing, from there to Roitsch." [Stille (p. 181),
+who was present. See Plan.] It was about two P.M. before the old
+man got all his deployments completed; what corps of his, deploying
+this way or that, came within wind of Kesselsdorf, were saluted
+with cannon, thirty pieces or more, which are in battery, in three
+batteries, on the knoll there; but otherwise no fighting as yet.
+At two, the Old Dessauer is complete; he reverently doffs his hat,
+as had always been his wont, in prayer to God, before going in.
+A grim fervor of prayer is in his heart, doubtless; though the
+words as reported are not very regular or orthodox: "O HERR GOTT,
+help me yet this once; let me not be disgraced in my old days!
+Or if thou wilt not help me, don't help those HUNDSVOGTE [damned
+Scoundrels, so to speak], but leave us to try it ourselves!"
+That is the Old Scandinavian of a Dessauer's prayer; a kind of
+GODUR he too, Priest as well as Captain: Prayer mythically true as
+given; mythically, not otherwise. [Ranke, iii. 334 n.] Which done,
+he waves his hat once, "On, in God's name!" and the storm is loose.
+Prussian right wing pushing grandly forward, bent in that manner,
+to take Kesselsdorf and its fire-throats in flank.
+
+The Prussians tramp on with the usual grim-browed resolution, foot
+in front, horse in rear; but they have a terrible problem at that
+Kesselsdorf, with its retrenched batteries, and numerous grenadiers
+fighting under cover. The very ground is sore against them;
+uphill, and the trampled snow wearing into a slide, so that you
+sprawl and stagger sadly. Thirty-one big guns, and about 9,000
+small, pouring out mere death on you, from that knoll-head.
+The Prussians stagger; cannot stand it; bend to rightwards, and get
+out of shot-range; cannot manage it this bout. Rally, reinforce;
+try it again. Again, with a will; but again there is not a way.
+The Prussians are again repulsed; fall back, down this slippery
+course, in more disorder than the first time. Had the Saxons stood
+still, steadily handling arms, how, on such terms, could the
+Prussians ever have managed it?
+
+But at sight of this second repulse, the Saxon grenadiers, and
+especially one battalion of Austrians who were there (the only
+Austrians who fought this day), gave a shout "Victory!"--and in the
+height of their enthusiasm, rushed out, this Austrian battalion
+first and the Saxons after them, to charge these Prussians, and
+sweep the world clear of them. It was the ruin of their battle;
+a fatal hollaing before you are out of the woods. Old Leopold,
+quick as thought, noticing the thing, hurls cavalry on these
+victorious down-plunging grenadiers; slashes them asunder, into
+mere recoiling whirlpools of ruin; so that "few of them got back
+unwounded;" and the Prussians storming in along with them,--aided
+by ever new Prussians, from beyond the Tschonengrund even,--the
+place was at length carried; and the Saxon battle became hopeless.
+
+For, their right being in such hurricane, the Prussians from the
+centre, as we hint, storm forward withal; will not be held back by
+the Tschonengrund. They find the Tschonengrund quaggy in the
+extreme, "brook frozen at the sides, but waist-deep of liquid mud
+in the centre;" cross it, nevertheless, towards the upper part of
+it,--young Moritz of Dessau leading the way, to help his old Father
+in extremity. They climb the opposite side,--quite slippery in
+places, but "helping one another up;"--no Saxons there till you get
+fairly atop, which was an oversight on the Saxon part. Fairly atop,
+Moritz is saluted by the Saxons with diligent musket-volleys;
+but Moritz also has musket-volleys in him, bayonet-charges in him;
+eager to help his old Papa at this hard pinch. Old Papa has the
+Saxons in flank; sends more and ever more other cavalry in on them;
+and in fact, the right wing altogether storms violently through
+Kesselsdorf, and sweeps it clean. Whole regiments of the Saxons are
+made prisoners; Roel's Light Horse we see there, taking standards;
+cutting violently in to avenge Roel's death, and the affront they
+had at Meissen lately. Furious Moritz on their front, from across
+the Tschonengrund; furious Roel (GHOST of Roel) and others in their
+flank, through Kesselsdorf: no standing for the Saxons longer.
+
+About nightfall,--their horse having made poorish fight, though the
+foot had stood to it like men,--they roll universally away.
+The Prussian left wing of horse are summoned through the
+Tschonengrund to chase: had there remained another hour of
+daylight, the Saxon Army had been one wide ruin. Hidden in
+darkness, the Saxon Army ebbed confusedly towards Dresden: with the
+loss of 6,000 prisoners and 3,000 killed and wounded: a completely
+beaten Army. It is the last battle the Saxons fought as a Nation,--
+or probably will fight. Battle called of Kesselsdorf: Wednesday,
+15th December, 1745.
+
+Prince Karl had arrived at Dresden the night before; heard all this
+volleying and cannonading, from the distance; but did not see good
+to interfere at all. Too wide apart, some say; quartered at
+unreasonably distant villages, by some irrefragable ignorant War-
+clerk of Bruhl's appointing,--fatal Bruhl. Others say, his Highness
+had himself no mind; and made excuses that his troops were tired,
+disheartened by the two beatings lately,--what will become of us in
+case of a third or fourth! It is certain, Prince Karl did nothing.
+Nor has Grime's corps, the right wing, done anything except
+meditate:--it stood there unattacked, unattacking; till deep in the
+dark night, when Rutowski remembered it, and sent it order to come
+home. One Austrian battalion, that of grenadiers on the knoll at
+Kesselsdorf, did actually fight;--and did begin that fatal
+outbreak, and quitting of the post there; "which lost the Battle to
+us!" say the Saxons.
+
+Had those grenadiers stood in their place, there is no Prussian but
+admits that it would have been a terrible business to take
+Kesselsdorf and its batteries. But they did not stand; they rushed
+out, shouting "Victory;" and lost us the battle. And that is the
+good we have got of the sublime Austrian Alliance; and that is the
+pass our grand scheme of Partitioning Prussia has come to?
+Fatal little Bruhl of the three hundred and sixty-five clothes-
+suits; Valet fatally become divine in Valet-hood,--are not you
+costing your Country dear!
+
+Old Dessauer, glorious in the last of his fields, lay on his arms
+all night in the posts about; three bullets through his roquelaure,
+no scratch of wound upon the old man. Young Moritz too "had a
+bullet through his coat-skirt, and three horses shot under him;
+but no hurt, the Almighty's grace preserving him."
+[<italic> Feldzuge, <end italic> i. 434.] This Moritz is the Third
+of the Brothers, age now thirty-three; and we shall hear
+considerably about him in times coming. A lean, tall, austere man;
+and, "of all the Brothers, most resembled his Father in his ways."
+Prince Dietrich is in Leipzig at present; looking to that
+contribution of 50,000 pounds; to that, and to other contributions
+and necessary matters;--and has done all his fighting (as it
+chanced), though he survived his Brothers many years. Old Papa will
+now get his discharge before long (quite suddenly, one morning, by
+paralytic stroke, 7th April, 1747); and rest honorably with the
+Sons of Thor. [Young Leopold, the successor, died 16th December,
+1751, age fifty-two; Dietrich (who had thereupon quitted
+soldiering, to take charge of his Nephew left minor, and did not
+resume it), died 2d December, 1769; Moritz (soldier to the last),
+11th April, 1760. See <italic> Militair-Lexikon, <end italic> i.
+43, 34, 38,47.]
+
+
+
+                          Chapter XV.
+
+          PEACE OF DRESDEN: FRIEDRICH DOES MARCH HOME.
+
+Friedrich himself had got to Meissen, Tuesday, l4th; no enemy on his
+road, or none to speak of: Friedrich was there, or not yet far
+across, all Wednesday; collecting himself, waiting, on the slip,
+for a signal from Old Leopold. Sound of cannon, up the Elbe
+Dresden-ward, is reported there to Friedrich, that afternoon:
+cannon, sure enough, notes Friedrich; and deep dim-rolling peals,
+as of volleying small-arms; "the sky all on fire over there," as
+the hoar-frosty evening fell. Old Leopold busy at it, seemingly.
+That is the glare of the Old Dessauer's countenance; who is giving
+voice, in that manner, to the earthly and the heavenly powers;
+conquering Peace for us, let us hope!
+
+Friedrich, as may be supposed, made his best speed next morning:
+"All well!" say the messengers; all well, says Old Leopold, whom he
+meets at Wilsdruf, and welcomes with a joyful embrace; 
+"dismounting from his horse, at sight of Leopold, and advancing to
+meet him with doffed hat and open arms,"--and such words and
+treatments, that day, as made the old man's face visibly shine.
+"Your Highness shall conduct me!" And the two made survey together
+of the actual Field of Kesselsdorf; strewn with the ghastly wrecks
+of battle,--many citizens of Dresden strolling about, or
+sorrowfully seeking for their lost ones among the wounded and dead.
+No hurt to these poor citizens, who dread none; help to them
+rather: such is Friedrich's mind,--concerning which, in the
+Anecdote-Books, there are Narratives (not worth giving) of a
+vapidly romantic character, credible though inexact. [For the
+indisputable part, see Orlich, ii. 343, 344; and <italic> OEuvres
+de Frederic, <end italic> iii. 170.] Friedrich, who may well be
+profuse of thanks and praises, charms the Old Dessauer while they
+walk together; brave old man with his holed roquelaure.
+For certain, he has done the work there,--a great deal of work in
+his time! Joy looks through his old rough face, of gunpowder color:
+the Herr Gott has not delivered him to those damned Scoundrels in
+the end of his days.--On the morrow, Friday, Leopold rolled grandly
+forward upon Dresden; Rutowski and Prince Karl vanishing into the
+Metal Mountains, by Pirna, for Bohemia, at sound of him,--as he had
+scarcely hoped they would.
+
+On the Saturday evening, Dresden, capable of not the least defence,
+has opened all its gates, and Friedrich and the Prussians are in
+Dresden; Austrians and wrecked Saxons falling back diligently
+towards the Metal Mountains for Bohemia, diligent to clear the road
+for him. Queen and Junior Princes are here; to whom, as to all men,
+Friedrich is courtesy itself; making personal visit to the
+Royalties, appointing guards of honor, sacred respect to the
+Royal Houses; himself will lodge at the Princess Lubomirski's, a
+private mansion.
+
+"That ferocious, false, ambitious King of Prussia"--Well, he is not
+to be ruined in open fight, on the contrary is ruinous there;
+nor by the cunningest ambuscades, and secret combinations, in field
+or cabinet: our overwhelming Winter Invasion of him--see where it
+has ended! Bruhl and Polish Majesty--the nocturnal sky all on fire
+in those parts, and loud general doomsday come--are a much-
+illuminated pair of gentlemen.
+
+From the time Meissen Bridge was lost, Prince Karl too showing
+himself so languid, even Bruhl had discerned that the case was
+desperate. On the very day of Kesselsdorf,--not the day BEFORE,
+which would have been such a thrift to Bruhl and others!--Friedrich
+had a Note from Villiers, signifying joyfully that his Polish
+Majesty would accept Peace. Thanks to his Polish Majesty:--and
+after Kesselsdorf, perhaps the Empress-Queen too will!
+Friedrich's offers are precisely what they were, what they have
+always been: "Convention of Hanover; that, in all its parts;
+old treaty of Breslau, to be guaranteed, to be actually kept. To me
+Silesia sure;--from you, Polish Majesty, one million crowns as
+damages for the trouble and cost this Triple Ambuscade of yours has
+given me; one million crowns, 150,000 pounds we will say; and all
+other requisitions to cease on the day of signature. These are my
+terms: accept these; then wholly, As you were, Empress-Queen and
+you, and all surviving creatures: and I march home within a week."
+Villiers speeds rapidly from Prag, with the due olive-branch;
+with Count Harrach, experienced Austrian, and full powers.
+Harrach cannot believe his senses: "Such the terms to be still
+granted, after all these beatings and rebeatings!"--then at last
+does believe, with stiff thankfulness and Austrian bows.
+The Negotiation need not occupy many hours.
+
+"His Majesty of Prussia was far too hasty with this Peace," says
+Valori: "he had taken a threap that he would have it finished
+before the Year was done:"--in fact, he knows his own mind, MON
+GROS VALORI, and that is what few do. You shear through no end of
+cobwebs with that fine implement, a wisely fixed resolution of your
+own. A Peace slow enough for Valori and the French: where could
+that be looked for?--Valori is at Berlin, in complete disgrace;
+his Most Christian King having behaved so like a Turk of late.
+Valori, horror-struck at such Peace, what shall he do to prevent
+it, to retard it? One effort at least. D'Arget his Secretary,
+stolen at Jaromirz, is safe back to him; ingenious, ingenuous
+D'Arget was always a favorite with Friedrich: despatch D'Arget to
+him. D'Arget is despatched; with reasons, with remonstrances, with
+considerations. D'Arget's Narrative is given: an ingenuous off-hand
+Piece;--poor little crevice, through which there is still to be
+had, singularly clear, and credible in every point, a direct
+glimpse of Friedrich's own thoughts, in that many-sounding
+Dresden,--so loud, that week, with dinner-parties, with operas,
+balls, Prussian war-drums, grand-parades and Peace-negotiations.
+
+
+        THE SIEUR D'ARGET TO EXCELLENCY VALORI (at Berlin).
+
+                     "DRESDEN, 1745" (dateless otherwise, must be
+                           December, between 18th and 25th).
+"MONSEIGNEUR,--I arrived yesterday at 7 P.M.; as I had the honor of
+forewarning you, by the word I wrote to the Abbe [never mind what
+Abbe; another Valori-Clerk] from Sonnenwalde [my half-way house
+between Berlin and this City]. I went, first of all, to M. de
+Vaugrenand," our Envoy here; "who had the goodness to open himself
+to me on the Business now on hand. In my opinion, nothing can be
+added to the excellent considerations he has been urging on the
+King of Prussia and the Count de Podewils.
+
+"At half-past 8, I went to his Prussian Majesty's; I found he was
+engaged with his Concert,"--lodges in the Lubomirski Palace, has
+his snatch of melody in the evening of such discordant days,--
+"and I could not see him till after half-past 9. I announced myself
+to M. Eichel; he was too overwhelmed with affairs to give me
+audience. I asked for Count Rothenburg; he was at cards with the
+Princess Lubomirski. At last, I did get to the King: who received
+me in the most agreeable way; but was just going to Supper; said he
+must put off answering till to-morrow morning, morning of this day.
+M. de Vaugrenand had been so good as prepare me on the rumors of a
+Peace with Saxony and the Queen of Hungary. I went to M. Podewils;
+who said a great many kind things to me for you. I could only
+sketch out the matter, at that time; and represented to Podewils
+the brilliant position of his Master, who had become Arbiter of the
+Peace of Europe; that the moment was come for making this Peace a
+General One, and that perhaps there would be room for repentance
+afterwards, if the opportunity were slighted. He said, his Master's
+object was that same; and thus closed the conversation by
+general questions.
+
+"This morning, I again presented myself at the King of Prussia's.
+I had to wait, and wait; in fine, it was not till half-past 5 in
+the evening that he returned, or gave me admittance; and I stayed
+with him till after 7,"--when Concert-time was at hand again.
+Listen to a remarkable Dialogue, of the Conquering Hero with a
+humble Friend whom he likes. "His Majesty condescended (A DAIGNE)
+to enter with me into all manner of details; and began by
+telling me,
+
+"That M. de Valori had done admirably not to come, himself, with
+that Letter from the King [Most Christian, OUR King; Letter, the
+sickly Document above spoken of]; that there could not have been an
+Answer expected,--the Letter being almost of ironical strain;
+his Majesty [Most Christian] not giving him the least hope, but
+merely talking of his fine genius, and how that would extricate him
+from the perilous entanglement, and inspire him with a wise
+resolution in the matter! That he had, in effect, taken a
+resolution the wisest he could; and was making his Peace with
+Saxony and the Queen of Hungary. That he had felt all the dangers
+of the difficult situations he had been in,"--sheer destruction
+yawning all round him, in huge imminency, more than once, and no
+friend heeding;--"that, weary of playing always double-or-quits, he
+had determined to end it, and get into a state of tranquillity,
+which both himself and his People had such need of. That France
+could not, without difficulty, have remedied his mishaps; and that
+he saw by the King's Letter, there was not even the wish to do it.
+That his, Friedrich's, military career was completed,"--so far as
+HE could foresee or decide! "That he would not again expose his
+Country to the Caprices of Fortune, whose past constancy to him was
+sufficiently astonishing to raise fears of a reverse (HEAR!).
+That his ambitions were fulfilled, in having compelled his Enemies
+to ask Peace from him in their own Capital, with the Chancellor of
+Bohemia [Harrach, typifying fallen Austrian pride] obliged
+to co-operate.
+
+"That he would always be attached to our King's interests, and set
+all the value in the world on his friendship; but that he had not
+been sufficiently assisted to be content. That, observing
+henceforth an exact neutrality, he might be enabled to do offices
+of mediation; and to carry, to the one side and to the other, words
+of peace. That he offered himself for that object, and would be
+charmed to help in it; but that he was fixed to stop there. That in
+regard to the basis of General Peace, he had Two Ideas [which the
+reader can attend to, and see where they differed from the Event,
+and where not]:--One was, That France should keep Ypres, Furnes,
+Tournay [which France did not], giving up the Netherlands
+otherwise, with Ostend, to the English [to the English!] in
+exchange for Cape Breton. The other was, To give up more of our
+Conquests [we gave them all up, and got only the glory, and our
+Cod-fishery, Cape Breton, back, the English being equally
+generous], and bargain for liberty to re-establish Dunkirk in its
+old condition [not a word of your Dunkirk; there is your Cape
+Breton, and we also will go home with what glory there is,--not
+difficult to carry!]. But that it was by England we must make the
+overtures, without addressing ourselves to the Court of Vienna;
+and put it in his, Friedrich's, power to propose a receivable
+Project of Peace. That he well conceived the great point was the
+Queen of Spain [Termagant and Jenkins's Ear; Termagant's Husband,
+still living, is a lappet of Termagant's self]: but that she must
+content herself with Parma and Piacenza for the Infant, Don Philip
+[which the Termagant did]; and give back her hold of Savoy [partial
+hold, of no use to her without the Passes] to the King of
+Sardinia." And of the JENKINS'S-EAR question, generous England will
+say nothing? Next to nothing; hopes a modicum of putty and
+diplomatic varnish may close that troublesome question,--which
+springs, meanwhile, in the centre of the world!--
+
+"These kind condescensions of his Majesty emboldened me to
+represent to him the brilliant position he now held; and how noble
+it would be, after having been the Hero of Germany, to become,
+instead of one's own pacificator, the Pacificator of Europe.
+'I grant you,' said he, (MON CHER D'Arget; but it is too dangerous
+a part for playing. A reverse brings me to the edge of ruin: I know
+too well the mood of mind I was in, last time I left Berlin [with
+that Three-legged Immensity of Atropos, NOT yet mown down at
+Hennersdorf by a lucky cut], ever to expose myself to it again!
+If luck had been against me there, I saw myself a Monarch without
+throne; and my subjects in the cruelest oppression. A bad game
+that: always, mere CHECK TO YOUR KING; no other move;--I refer it
+to you, friend D'Arget:--in fine, I wish to be at peace.'
+
+"I represented to him that the House of Austria would never, with a
+tranquil eye, see his House in possession of Silesia. 'Those that
+come after me,' said he, 'will do as they like; the Future is
+beyond man's reach. Those that come after will do as they can.
+I have acquired; it is theirs to preserve. I am not in alarm about
+the Austrians;--and this is my answer to what you have been saying
+about the weakness of my guarantees. They dread my Army; the luck
+that I have. I am sure of their sitting quiet for the dozen years
+or so which may remain to me of life;--quiet till I have, most
+likely, done with it. What! Are we never to have any good of our
+life, then (NE DOIS-JE DONC JAMAIS JOUIR)? There is more for me in
+the true greatness of laboring for the happiness of my subjects,
+than in the repose of Europe. I have put Saxony out of a condition
+to do hurt. She owes 14,775,000 crowns of debt [two millions and a
+quarter sterling]; and by the Defensive Alliance which I form with
+her, I provide myself [but ask Bruhl withal!] a help against
+Austria. I would not henceforth attack a cat, except to defend
+myself.' ["These are his very words," adds D'Arget;--and well worth
+noting.] (Ambition (GLOIRE) and my interests were the occasion of
+my first Campaigns. The late Kaiser's situation, and my zeal for
+France [not to mention interests again], gave rise to these second:
+and I have been fighting always since for my own hearths,--for my
+very existence, I might say! Once more, I know the state I had got
+into:--if I saw Prince Karl at the gates of Paris, I would not
+stir.'--'And us at the gates of Vienna,' answered I promptly, 'with
+the same indifference?'--'Yes; and I swear it to you, D'Arget. In a
+word, I want to have some good of my life (VEUX JOUIR). What are
+we, poor human atoms, to get up projects that cost so much blood?
+Let us live, and help to live.'
+
+"The rest of the conversation passed in general talk, about
+Literature, Theatres and such objects. My reasonings and
+objectings, on the great matter, I need not farther detail: by the
+frank discourse his Prussian Majesty was kind enough to go into,
+you may gather perhaps that my arguments were various, and not ill-
+chosen;--and it is too evident they have all been in vain."--
+Your Excellency's (really in a very faithful way)--        D'ARGET.
+[Valori, i. 290-294 (no date, except "Dresden, 1745,"--sleepy
+Editor feeling no want of any).]
+
+D'Arget, about a month after this, was taken into Friedrich's
+service; Valori consenting, whose occupation was now gone;--and we
+shall hear of D'Arget again. Take this small Note, as summary of
+him: "D'Arget (18th January, 1746) had some title, 'Secretary at
+Orders (SECRETAIRE DES COMMANDEMENTS),' bit of pension; and
+continued in the character of reader, or miscellaneous literary
+attendant and agent, very much liked by his Master, for six years
+coming. A man much heard of, during those years of office.
+March, 1752, having lost his dear little Prussian Wife, and got
+into ill health and spirits, he retired on leave to Paris; and next
+year had to give up the thought of returning;--though he still, and
+to the end, continued loyally attached to his old Master, and more
+or less in correspondence with him. Had got, before long, not
+through Friedrich's influence at Paris, some small Appointment in
+the ECOLE MILITAIRE there. He is, of all the Frenchmen Friedrich
+had about him, with the exception of D'Argens alone, the most
+honest-hearted. The above Letter, lucid, innocent, modest,
+altogether rational and practical, is a fair specimen of D'Arget:
+add to it the prompt self-sacrifice (and in that fine silent way)
+at Jaromirz for Valori, and readers may conceive the man. He lived
+at Paris, in meagre but contented fashion, RUE DE L'ECOLE
+MILITAIRE, till 1778; and seems, of all the Ex-Prussian Frenchmen,
+to have known most about Friedrich; and to have never spoken any
+falsity against him. Duvernet, the 'M----' Biographer of VOLTAIRE,
+frequented him a good deal; and any true notions, or glimmerings of
+such, that he has about Prussia, are probably ascribable to
+D'Arget." [See <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xx.
+(p. xii of PREFACE to the D'ARGET CORRESPONDENCE there).]
+
+The Treaty of Dresden can be read in Scholl, Flassan, Rousset,
+Adelung; but, except on compulsion, no creature will now read it,--
+nor did this Editor, even he, find it pay. Peace is made. Peace of
+Dresden is signed, Christmas Day, 1745: "To me Silesia, without
+farther treachery or trick; you, wholly as you were." Europe at
+large, as Friedrich had done, sees "the sky all on fire about
+Dresden." The fierce big battles done against this man have, one
+and all of them, become big defeats. The strenuous machinations,
+high-built plans cunningly devised,--the utmost sum-total of what
+the Imperial and Royal Potencies can, for the life of them, do:
+behold, it has all tumbled down here, in loud crash; the final peal
+of it at Kesselsdorf; and the consummation is flame and smoke,
+conspicuous over all the Nations. You will let him keep his own
+henceforth, then, will you? Silesia, which was NOT yours nor ever
+shall be? Silesia and no afterthought? The Saxons sign, the high
+Plenipotentiaries all; in the eyes of Villiers, I am told, were
+seen sublimely pious tears. Harrach, bowing with stiff, almost
+incredulous, gratitude, swears and signs;--hurries home to his
+Sovereign Lady, with Peace, and such a smile on his face; and on
+her Imperial Majesty's such a smile!--readers shall conceive it.
+
+There are but Two new points in the Treaty of Dresden,--nay
+properly there is but One point, about which posterity can have the
+least care or interest; for that other, concerning "The Toll of
+Schidlo," and settlement of haggles on the Navigation of the Elbe
+there, was not kept by the Saxons, but continued a haggle still:
+this One point is the Eleventh Article. Inconceivably small;
+but liable to turn up on us again, in a memorable manner. That let
+us translate,--for M. de Voltaire's sake, and time coming!
+STEUER means Land-Tax; OBER-STEUER-EINNAHME will be something like
+Royal Exchequer, therefore; and STEUER-SCHEIN will be approximately
+equivalent to Exchequer Bill. Article Eleventh stipulates:
+
+"All subjects and servants of his Majesty the King of Prussia who
+hold bonds of the Saxon OBER-STEUER-EINNAHME shall be paid in full,
+capital and interest, at the times, and to the amount, specified in
+said STEUER-SCHEINE or Bonds." That is Article Eleventh.--
+"The Saxon Exchequer," says an old Note on it, "thanks to Bruhl's
+extravagance, has been as good as bankrupt, paying with
+inconvertible paper, with SCHEINE (Things to be SHOWN), for some
+time past; which paper has accordingly sunk, let us say, 25 per
+cent below its nominal amount in gold. All Prussian subjects, who
+hold these Bonds, are to be paid in gold; Saxons, and others, will
+have to be content with paper till things come round again, if
+things ever do." Yes;--and, by ill chance, the matter will attract
+M. de Voltaire's keen eye in the interim!
+
+Friedrich stayed eight days in Dresden, the loud theme of
+Gazetteers and rumors; the admired of two classes, in all
+Countries: of the many who admire success, and also of the few who
+can understand what it is to deserve success. Among his own
+Countrymen, this last Winter has kindled all their admirations to
+the flaming pitch. Saved by him from imminent destruction;
+their enemies swept home as if by one invincible; nay, sent home in
+a kind of noble shame, conquered by generosity. These feelings,
+though not encouraged to speak, run very high. The Dresdeners in
+private society found him delightful; the high ladies especially:
+"Could you have thought it; terrific Mars to become radiant Apollo
+in this manner!" From considerable Collections of Anecdotes
+illustrating this fact, in a way now fallen vapid to us,--I select
+only the Introduction:--
+
+"Do readers recollect Friedrich's first visit to Dresden [in 1728],
+seventeen years ago; and a certain charming young Countess
+Flemming, at that time only fourteen; who, like a Hebe as she was,
+contrived beautiful surprises for him, and among other things
+presented him, so gracefully, on the part of August the Strong,
+with his first flute?"--No reader of this History can recollect it;
+nor indeed, except in a mythic sense, believe it! A young Countess
+Flemming (daughter of old Feldmarschall Flemming) doubtless there
+might be, who presented him a flute; but as to HIS FIRST flute--?
+"That same charming young Countess Flemming is still here, age now
+thirty-one; charming, more than ever, though now under a changed
+name; having wedded a Von Racknitz (Supreme Gentleman-Usher, or
+some such thing) a few years ago, and brought him children and the
+usual felicities. How much is changed! August the Strong, where is
+he; and his famous Three Hundred and Fifty-four, Enchantress
+Orzelska and the others, where are they? Enchantress Orzelska
+wedded, quarrelled, and is in a convent: her charming destiny
+concluded. Rutowski is not now in the Prussian Army: he got beaten,
+Wednesday last, at Kesselsdorf, fighting against that Army. And the
+Chevalier de Saxe, he too was beaten there;--clambering now across
+the Metal Mountains, ask not of him. And the Marechal de Saxe, he
+takes Cities, fights Battles of Fontenoy, 'mumbling a lead bullet
+all day;' being dropsical, nearly dead of debaucheries; the most
+dissolute (or probably so) of all the Sons of Adam in his day.
+August the Physically Strong is dead. August the Spiritually Weak
+is fled to Prag with his Bruhl. And we do not come, this time, to
+get a flute; but to settle the account of Victories, and give Peace
+to Nations. Strange, here as always, to look back,--to look round
+or forward,--in the mad huge whirl of that loud-roaring Loom of
+Time!--One of Countess Racknitz's Sons happened to leave MANUSCRIPT
+DIARIES [rather feeble, not too exact-looking], and gives us, from
+Mamma's reminiscences" ... Not a word more. [Rodenbeck, <italic>
+Beitrage, <end italic> i. 440, et seq.]
+
+The Peace, we said, was signed on Christmas-day. Next day, Sunday,
+Friedrich attended Sermon in the Kreuzkirche (Protestant High-
+Church of Dresden), attended Opera withal; and on Monday morning
+had vanished out of Dresden, as all his people had done, or were
+diligently doing. Tuesday, he dined briefly at Wusterhausen (a
+place we once knew well), with the Prince of Prussia, whose it now
+is; got into his open carriage again, with the said Prince and his
+other Brother Ferdinand; and drove swiftly homeward. Berlin, drunk
+with joy, was all out on the streets, waiting. On the Heath of
+Britz, four or five miles hitherward of Berlin, a body of young
+gentlemen ("Merchants mostly, who had ridden out so far") saluted
+him with "VIVAT FRIEDRICH DER GROSSE (Long live Friedrich THE
+GREAT)!" thrice over;--as did, in a less articulate manner, Berlin
+with one voice, on his arrival there; Burgher Companies lining the
+streets; Population vigorously shouting; Pupils of the Koln
+Gymnasium, with Clerical and School Functionaries in mass, breaking
+out into Latin Song:--
+         "VIVAT, VIVAT FRIDERICUS REX;
+          VIVAT AUGUSTUS, MAGNUS, FELIX, PATER, PATRI-AE--!"
+--and what not. [Preuss, i. 220; who cites <italic> Beschreibung
+<end italic> ("Description of his Majesty's Triumphant Entry, on
+the" &c.) and other Contemporary Pamphlets. Rodenbeck, i. 124.]
+On reaching the Portal of the Palace, his Majesty stept down;
+and, glancing round the Schloss-Platz and the crowded windows and
+simmering multitudes, saluted, taking off his hat; which produced
+such a shout,--naturally the loudest of all. And so EXIT King, into
+his interior. Tuesday, 2-3 P.M., 28th December, 1745: a King new-
+christened in the above manner, so far as people could.
+
+Illuminated Berlin shone like noon, all that night (the beginning
+of a GAUDEAMUS which lasted miscellaneously for weeks):--but the
+King stole away to see a friend who was dying; that poor Duhan de
+Jaudun, his early Schoolmaster, who had suffered much for him, and
+whom he always much loved. Duhan died, in a day or two.
+Poor Jordan, poor Keyserling (the "Cesarion" of young days):
+them also he has lost; and often laments, in this otherwise bright
+time. {In <italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xvii. 288; xviii. 141;
+IB. 142 (painfully tender Letters to Frau von Camas and others, on
+these events).
+
+
+
+
+END OF BOOK XV-----
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg etext of Carlyle's "History of 
+Friedrich II of Prussia V" volume 15.
diff --git a/old/15frd10.zip b/old/15frd10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4438e8d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/15frd10.zip